Left 4 Evil
by Bee I Lion
Summary: After four survivors escaped a horde of infected from U.S.A., their nightmare was to be over, but it only just begun. They now face a new kind of threat in a dark part of Europe, the Las Plagas. Zoey's side of the story. "Left4Dead & Resident Evil 4"
1. Chapter 1: Man with an ax

A long time ago, there was a world that didn't recognize the impossible, a world that think Zombies doesn't exist. That world is the world we call, the modern world. I use to believe the same thing. I kept telling myself after seeing a horror movie that none of it was real, just old people in cheap costumes. On one of my later birthdays, I told my mother the same thing I told myself. We had some laughs about the whole thing, but it was hardly funny to her. She grabbed my arms softly and kneeled down to my level and looked me in the eyes. She told me to always expect the unexpected, meaning always expect what is to come. I heard that cliched line before, I heard it a lot of times. Either on the Internet or on the TV, I heard it so much often than the things I usually say. Hell, I still didn't believe in the supernatural Mumbo Jumbo. Looking back on it now...I just...find it disturbing that after not believing in zombies....I ended up living in a world...surrounded, by zombies. My name is Zoey and this my story of how me and my team, saved this dying world, from a new type of parasitic threat: The Las Plagas.

**Chapter 1: Man with an ax**

Pennsylvania...I'll never forget the dreadful things I witness there. My home, my family, my peaceful life, all gone. A deadly disease that spread like wild fire, turned everyone I knew into pale, flesh craving zombies. I killed so many, that I couldn't bare to forgive myself, but it was either kill or be killed, as they say. Fortunately, I wasn't the only survivor, no, there were others. Three guys that new their way around guns. Francis, Bill, and Louis, possibly the only friends I have in this world now. We climbed every obstacle, we fought our way through an army of our infected friends and family, and we defended our spots for help to arrive. We made a pretty good team...maybe too good.

After fighting a horde of zombies on the roof of Mercy Hospital, we were rescued by a chopper in a nic of time. Thankfully, all of us got out alive, leaving our homes for good. Apparently, America wasn't a safe place to be, so we were brought to a secret underground base in the middle of Mexico. The whole are was not infected with the disease, so they say. After a while of rest, we were called in by the general for, you've guessed it, a mission. He heard about our battle in Pennsylvania and thought we were the soldiers he needed. What was the mission? Well after the infection spread through out the world, the President of the United State's daughter was missing and her name was Ashley. Sources say that she was kidnapped to a location in Europe. I said no, we've been through to much to go on some rescue mission. The general that we would be treated as heroes and will be rewarded handsomely or whatever the old man said. With the equipment they gave us, how could the guys refuse? Though all they had to offer were some pistols, SMGs, bullets, health kits, and a pack of cigarettes. Some help...

I didn't want to go, I didn't! But before I knew it, we were on a one-way flight to Europe. Later, there I was, in the back seat of an old blue Station Wagon, riding down a foggy road with my team, listening to bad spanish music. Francis was behind the wheel, Bill rode shotgun, and Louis sat next beside me looking through the windows like I did. I didn't really know where we were, just driving through a dense forest somewhere in the country side in the daytime. Our lead was that Ashley was brought to this rural country by an unknown group and it was our job to get her back. But I just can't stop asking myself why us? I guess they thought if we can stand against an army, we were an army of 4. Who knew rescuing a girl would be our first job together...

"...UGHH! Francis will you turn that music off?" I complained turning my head away from the window.

"Fine, jeez!" Francis said in high deep voice as he turning the radio off. Francis to me, was hot, hot-headed to be exact. He's a big, muscle biker guy with tattoos all over his arms and neck and likes to keep his head shaved and his dark brown beard medium. He's Besides that, he literately hates everything....he hates stairs, the water, helicopters, doctors, and so on and so forth and he's clearly ain't the sharpest knife in the tool box. Though he is good when it comes to fighting. Wearing black is his only clothing. "But what am I suppose to listen to huh? You guys singing Kumbia around the campfire?"

"Why not listen to the engine and pray to God it doesn't run out of gas," Bill said blowing smoke from his cigarette. Now Bill may be senior, but he's a fit Vietnam Veteran and he doesn't screw around. He has more experience in war than all of us combined and is sometimes brings leadership and wisdom to the team. The only thing that bothers me about him is his lack of humor and his obsession with smoking.

"You know what Bill?" Francis asked, "If you'd put out that damn cigarette maybe I could concentrate on the gas."

"I'm a grown man, I can smoke whenever I want to smoke Francis," Bill muttered.

"Ha! I'm surprised you haven't died from lung cancer!" Francis laughed, that made Bill so aggravated that he almost reached for his gun.

"You have some nerve-!"

"Guys Guys! Calm down alright?" Louis shouted from the back, "The last thing we need is an argument!" I admit, sometimes we can't get along, we can hardly stand each other. That's where Louis comes in, to keep everyone under control. He's smart, kind, and yet can be a bit loud. He was an assistant manager at a local retail electronics chain store; so I'd never did question his logic about things. Aside from that, there's not much to say about this live wire. "Seriously, you two sound like an old married couple."

"Who you callin' old, pencil neck?" Francis shouted back.

"You trying to start something fat man?" Louis shouted back.

"You know, I can turn this cheese wagon around right now!"

"FRANCIS!"

...ok, so we don't get along at all. We just want to get away from each other, but fate keeps bringing us back together like this. Looking at the passing fall trees through my window kept me occupied through the arguing and for some reason gave me more suspicion our first mission. Then all of a sudden, Francis stopped the car in the middle road and switched it to park.

"Um Francis, what are doing?" I asked him.

"Ehhg, I knew I shouldn't have ate that burger," he muttered strangely as he opened the door and got out the car, "Stay here, I need to go take a dump."

"Francis!" Bill yelled, "You can't just-!"

*Slam*

He already slammed the door before he could finish. He went behind a tree at a fair distance away from us...the whole thing was gross when we heard him grunting out there, that's why we didn't bother to look back. As we waited, Bill offered use some of his smokes. Louis and I said no; I didn't feel like it and Louis didn't care much for smoke. Strangely, we felt a slight chill in the car, felt like it was coming from outside. Bill doesn't like being a sitting duck in the middle of nowhere, anything could happen and had a slight thought that someone was watching us. Who ever it was out there, we'll be ready.

After a good while, Francis finished his business and got back into the car. He complained how cold it was out there as he closed the door and put the handle back into drive. We continued our journey through the woods and along the way, we came across a wooden bridge above a river. Looking at the map we were given back at the base, up ahead was the village. All we had to do is cross the bridge and make a short walk. Francis slowly drove across the wide bridge to the other side. Surprisingly, it was sturdy enough for a truck to cross, even though it was held by rope. As we made it across, the road way seemed to become walking paths through the woods, I.E, we couldn't drive any further. As we stopped, I noticed an old two story house on the right. From there, it looked like it was there since the medieval times.

"Hey guys, check out the house over there," I said still looking at it through the window, they agreed it did look old, so there was no doubt we were in the old country. "The girl must be in there."

"Nah," Louis said, "Because then, that would be too easy."

"Either way, we're going to have a look inside," Francis said as he turned off the car, "Come on, everyone out, you too gramps." Bill took a long look at him when all of us got out the car. As we got out, the air went colder than before. The fog surrounding the area began to fade, but the dark clouds blocking the sun still remained in the skies. It was like it was going to rain on top of us.

"Phew, sure is cold out here," Louis said shivering cold as the rest of us.

"Crap, I hate the cold...," Francis said. I noticed that he left the keys in the car, but I just didn't want to say it, I wanted to give myself some peace and check the house alone.

"I'll go and have a look," I said reloading my my handgun with fresh bullets. Everyone stared at me like I was crazy.

"Umm, how about no?" Francis frowned.

"He's right Zoey," Louis agreed getting out his gun from the trunk with Bill, "We all have to stick together. There's no telling what's in there."

"I can take care of myself, thank you," I said, "It's probably deserted anyway." Bill took a breath of smoke and let it out harshly as he looked at me.

"Fine, go and get yourself killed," He said taking his assault rifle from the back, then Francis had another laugh at Bill.

"Yeah, we'll stay here and watch the car," he said, "We wouldn't want to get any parking tickets."

"Parking tickets....right,"I muttered as I started to walk away. I wasn't going to be long, just a quick search, but Bill gave me two minutes alone. That was enough to give me a break from them. They are so obnoxious. As I walked around outside, everything looked dead. The trees, the leaves, and even the grass were slowly dying away. When I moved towards the trees in front of me, a flock of crows flew away, squawking while they did it. 30 seconds out there and I was already worried. Before I had second thoughts, it happened-

"Quit screwing around and go already!" Francis yelled at me. I said nothing at that point, being rushed isn't really my thing. So I walked up to the porch of the house and leaned against the wall. It seemed quiet in there. Then I wiggled the door knob a little and the door was surprisingly unlocked. Once I opened it all the way, I entered the old house with ease. It seemed pretty dark with hardly any light on a cloudy day, but I did see some light on the other side of the corner. I looked with caution and saw a man near the fire place, it was the only thing lighting up the wooden living room. Everything looked dirty in there, even his cloths. I couldn't imagine someone living in a home like this.

He was just moving the wood among the fire with an iron stick, minding his own business, like he didn't hear me come in. Feeling confident and scared, I put away my gun and walked in the room. He still didn't pay attention when my foot steps made the wooden floor squeak. When I got close enough to the man with his back turned, I finally spoke to him.

"Um, excuse me sir?" I said in a polite manner, but it didn't seem that polite to him. Once he heard my voice, he slowly stood up straight facing, and slowly turned to me in a menacing manner. He said nothing to me, he only stared at me with his pale red eyes. "...hi, my name is Zoey. Sorry for the intrusion, but there seems to be a girl somewhere in the area," I then pulled out a photo of Ashley from my left pocket and showed it to the man...he stared at it too. "Have you by any chance seen her?" He looked at me again.

_"¿Qué carajo estás haciendo aquí? ¡Lárgate, puta!"_ He said to me in a frightening manner. To tell the truth, I had no idea what he said to me. That was probably local's way of saying no.

"Wow, sorry I'd bothered you," I said. Knowing he didn't know, I stuck the picture back in my pocket, and turned my back for a second. Before I started to even think of leaving-

"Aahhhhh!" The man yelled from behind. I quickly turned around and saw him coming at me with a small, rusty ax! I acted fast and dodged away from the attack and pointed my gun at the man.

"Freeze!" I said hold my ground. The man walked to me slowly while holding the ax in the air. When I uttered those words at the crazed man, I swore I heard low moan in the room. "...I SAID FREEZE!...I'm serious, stop it or I will shoot you!"

I didn't want to shoot the man, but when he got close enough and got ready to attack again, I had to shoot him.

*Bang*!

I shot him in the kneecap and he fell on his other knee. I told him to stop and that taught him a lesson. But to my surprise, he slowly got back up on his own two feet and it was like his knee wasn't injured! He still came towards me!

*Bang*!

I shot him in the other kneecap and then he fell on both his knees. Again, he got up looking unharmed and still came at me with the ax. I had no choice...

*Bang*!

"Agghhhh!" He cried in pain when I shot him in his right eye. When the bullet hit, he took his hand and wiggled his head in pain. Distracted, I kicked him right into the wooden table. It broke and the rotten looking pot fell on his belly and oozed out rotten slop. He didn't move from that attack, so I assumed I won the fight. I then relaxed myself and put away my gun. I walked closer to him and I noticed he wasn't breathing...he was a hostile local, but I didn't mean to kill him, I just tried to neutralize him. I wondered if he was a zombie back home, but he wasn't. He spoke and didn't blab, he even walked and didn't run like crazy. At that moment when everything was calm, I heard a loud motor sound outside, it sounded like a truck. Along with that, I heard my team outside, yelling in fear.

I ran to the opened door, hoping that they didn't run into the locals. I ran outside and to my surprise-

*Pow*! *Pow*!

*Rata-tat-tata-ta*!

"Yeah! Come get some!"

*Boom*! Boom*!

Out in the distance I saw them defending themselves from some villagers with axes and pitchforks. All I heard was gunfire, yells and laughter as I rushed over to where they were. By the time I arrived, it was over. The villagers were dead next to their truck, in a pool of blood and bullets.

"Zoey!" Louis said, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Louis, as long as I have a gun, I'm safe," I said, "...where's the car?" Then the three lead me over to the river where we crossed and told me to look down. It was unbelievable. The car was crashed into the sharp rocks below. All of our equipment was down there, even our communications. "Wha-what happened?"

"Ehh, these crazy sons of bitches rammed it all the why down there with that truck," Bill said reloading his rifle, "...it's a good thing we weren't in it....why they did it, I don't know."

"Yeah, lets stay positive about this," Louis agreed, but Francis had a different state of mind.

"Hey Mr. Positive," he often referred to Louis, "Our communication stuff is destroyed, got anything positive to say about that?"

"...people would've, been annoying us with the calls? Heh."

"Aww damn it, we're screwed," Francis moaned.

"No we're not," Bill said, "There's a village up ahead. Maybe they'll be more kinder than these, things." Why did he call them things? To the rest of us, they looked normal, but Bill always the suspicious type. He said they didn't look human, that their eyes were equivalent to the zombies we faced in the U.S. But, there was something stranger about them. "So reload your weapons and stay close to me. We still have a mission."

"No!" I said, "We need to find someone else besides the villagers. Like the police or something. We need backup!"

"Zoey, the nearest town is miles away from here and it's about be dark soon," Bill said puffing a smoke, "As far as I'm concerned, we are the backup. We'll be okay as long as we 'stick together'. So quit crying and lets go."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Francis said as we walked with Bill down the dusty path to the village, "By the way Zoey, find anything in the in that house? We heard gun shots." I reacted slow, I didn't know what to say to them. But I wasn't going to say I was scared.

"Yeah, one of the villagers," I said, "He was hostile, so I had no choice but to...neutralize him."

"Did he say anything? About Ashley?" Louis asked.

"No," I answered, "He said something in another language, I couldn't understand him."

"Hmm, from what I heard, they speak Spanish," he said, "I took some classes and I pretty much understood what they we're yelling. Calling us outsiders and other things."

"Ooh!" We said. I didn't know he understood other languages.

"So what did he say to you?" He asked again.

"Couldn't remember, Just a bunch of jibberish" I answered then something came back to me about what he said, ".......um Louis, what's a puta?"

"Uhh, I think that's considered either a whore or a bitch."

"....that old bastard...." I said silently, Francis had a good laugh at that, so I told shut up. After we passed the house, Bill could already see it was going to be a long walk to the village. The fog kept rolling in and the cloudy sky slowly got darker through time. I got kind of nervous. When we left the area, Louis said something that took the words out of my mouth.

"I've got a baad feeling about this..." You and me both Louis...you and me both.....


	2. Chapter 2: Familiar faces

**Chapter 2: Familiar faces**

It pains me to say this, but our first step to completing wasn't even close to the beginning. Being attacked by some crazed villagers and with no communication once so ever was like stepping in an ant hill. Unexpected with horrible results. It wasn't a good feeling...I digress. Continuing were I left off, after facing a crude unwelcome by some villagers, me and the gang walked through the cold and dead woods. We didn't run ahead in a hurry, no, Bill the Veteran suggested we'd be slow and cautious and close. As we walked on through, holding our guns tightly, I saw more crows up ahead. One pecking at the ground and one on a dead tree, looking at us. It really got me spooked. We walked closer towards them with the cold wind blowing harder. The wind scared them away and made us really cold.

That was really ridiculous, out here in the cold without a damn coat. Louis, Francis, and I were freezing. Bill on the other hand, looked like he didn't feel a thing. I asked him, "Bill, aren't you cold wearing those army cloths?" Everywhere we go, he always wore his old veteran uniform. Black boots, green pants and loose lightweight vest, white shirt underneath, and his honorary green hat whenever he had to kill. The rest of us just wore our new street cloths we picked up from the base.

"No," He said with the same cigarette in his mouth, muttering, "I'm use to this kind of weather. Back in the old days of hardship, me and the boys fought behind enemy lines in the cold everyday. We weren't drinking coco or lying in a blanket unlike some people. It didn't matter if it was hot or cold as Hell, we still went on with our missions. We even walked through swamps in our underwear for Christ sake."

"...way too much information Bill," Louis said scratching his baled head, looking at him like he's crazy.

"Seriously," said Francis, "Next thing you're probably going to tell us, that you've walked on broken glass barefooted for two miles and shit."

"No," he said taking the cigarette out of his mouth for a puff, "...try three miles of fire and razor blades." Francis wanted to froget he'd ever asked. As we walked down the narrow path with the cold breeze in our face, we heard something after the crows fled. It was something, whimpering. Something that sounded like something in pain, like scared dog. We took it slow and headed to direction of the noise. After coming across a bloody sign decorated with skulls, we looked over and saw what looked like a white wolf. The poor thing's leg was caught in a rusty bear trap in the dead grass and couldn't get out. Who knew how long it was trapped, long enough to know it can still cry.

"Phew, it's just a wolf," Louis said.

"Nah," Francis protested, "looks more like a dog to me."

"Francis, it's a wolf," Louis trying to correct him, "I should know what one looks like."

"Apparently you don't," he said, "It's a dog, just look at the tail! What kind of wolf walks around with a skinny tail like that?"

"It ain't that skinny!" He said, then Bill pushed them out of the way to help the dog. He was sick of the arguing as I was.

"You dumb asses would argue over what a bomb looks like and get yourselves killed," he said, "Stand back and let me help the poor thing." While he was trying to open the bear trap, I looked at the skull sign again by curiosity. I looked very strange. I've never seen a bloody sign hanging two skulls like that before. I wasn't an archeologist or anything, but anything that deals with skulls, has to do with death. Maybe a warning...

"Eh, there you go little guy," Bill said releasing the wolf, dog thing from the trap. It's leg was in pretty bad shape, the wound was nearly visible through the fur. It still was able to walk on it's four feet though, it was a strong one. After walking it out, it shook it's body trying to clean itself and then, it just ran away to the deep woods. Some thanks. Good thing it didn't attack us like the villagers and I wondered if we'll ever see it again. After that pointless moment, we continued down the path. A short walk later, we came to a lower level of the path and walked down the hill. There we saw just two trees and tall grass in the middle of the fenced area. We walked closer without a care of anything happening and Bill said, "Hold it." All of us stopped, we didn't know what was he doing, but we listened anyway. Again, it was his, what I call, "The Bill Sense," where Bill detects something fishy going on and it was tingling right looked and saw nothing still, but Bill did. He picked up a small rock from the ground and tossed it into the dead grass ahead. Once it hit, *Clang*! It activated a bear trap in the grass. We soon discovered there were more in the area and were shocked.

"More bear traps? They must really have trouble getting food or something," Louis said and I had to agree, something was right, but I didn't assume food. Knowing that there were more traps, we took it slow and proceeded. We watched are footing as well as our sights. Then out of nowhere, we heard a sound of one of the villagers.

_"iLos forasteros!" _He shouted from the hill. He was waving a rake and rushed down the hill. We wanted to shoot him, but Bill said not to waste our ammo as he told us to stand our ground. He came closer down the hill. Closer and closer and closer near one of the trees and hen he got close enough-

*Boom*!

He ran into a long string across two trees and got blasted to the ground. The environment was more dangerous than we thought.

"Wow wow! Where'd that come from?" Said Louis being surprised at the blast. Francis just laughed at the villager's suicidal body just lying on the ground while Bill still smoked with suspicion.

"I knew it," he said, "Apparently outsiders aren't welcome here. That's what he called us, right Louis?"

"Yeah. He said 'The outsiders!'" Louis quoted. Bill nodded his head and knew the town wouldn't give us a better welcome when we'd got there. Thankfully, the dead villager cleared the path for us and we continued down the path and headed up the hill. After walking up, I felt I needed to talk to someone.

"So Bill, you think there's something wrong with these people?" I said, "No one just attacks people at plain sight like this." He puffed his smoke and looked at me.

"Like I said, they don't take too kindly to outsiders," he said, "No one said we were coming, no one knows about this job but us and the government...so you know something's up..."

"I don't really care how these Mexicans hate outsiders," Francis said getting bored, "As long as I get to shoot something, I'll be fine."

"...these aren't Mexicans man, we're in Europe!" Louis said at his stupidity. After that little talk, we ventured on top of the hill leading another path that we've followed. Along the cold and dreaded path, we spotted a hut on the left. It was small and could be considered a shake of some sort. Anyway, wanting to enter, Bill quickly flung his back against the wall holding his rifle tightly and leaned his head near the open shake. He just want to be sure it wasn't a trap. Thankfully nothing was inside but some old wooden boxes on the shelves.

"Everything's clear here," he said entering the shake, "There's some boxes, lets try and salvage whatever's in them." So we came in with him. I was the second to enter and thought everything would be ok. I looked inside and everything was fine...until I turned left.

"Wahh!" I jumped at the sight. I saw a village woman...with a rusty pitchfork lodged to her head on the wall, suspending her from the ground. It totally scared the crap out of me!. Blood scattered across the wall like a busted watermelon. Bill wasn't scared at all and ton top of that, the rest just laughed at me. They were all creeps, so I went back outside letting them find whatever. I mean it, they were all creeps. Short after, they've come back with some green herbs. Francis mistook them for weed, like me.

"Heh, we're having a party tonight!" He yelled holding one of them in the air, he could just burn them and inhale the smoke to get high.

"I don't think these are weeds," Louis said, "They look like herbs, you know, the kind you see at the doctor's." The truth is that the herbs were medical ingredients for healing. He also added that if we could ground them to juices, it could be a great pain reliever, but Francis didn't care.

"Who cares?" He asked, "I just want to see if we can get high on these things." The talking was loud too loud. Before we knew it, we saw two move villagers up ahead. One was carrying a hand scythe and the other held a pitchfork, both were rusty and old. Once they spotted us, one yelled.

_"¡Ahí están!" _Which Louis translated as "There they are!" They rushed over towards us, wanting to kill us. At far range, all of us fired our weapons at the two.

*Pow*! I fired at one of the guy's legs, causing him to trip and fall to the ground.

*Bang*! Bill Shot a bullet to the other's arm, making him stun but still moved.

*Boom*! Francis finished Bill's job and blasted the guy's head off while he was still stunned.

*Tata-tat-tat-tat*! Then finally Louis fired away on the guy on the ground. He belched a painful moan at the dirt, stopped moving, and it was over. Both were dead.

After winning another fight made Francis fell great while I still felt guilty killing them. But it wasn't compared to what I did to my loved ones back home. Bill said nothing as he made move forward down the path, passing the bodies. Later we came across a bridge over a cliffish river. We walked on the wobbly bridge of rope and wood and made it across the cliff. So far so good I had to say, since it didn't break or anything...making us far to our death, but I digress again. Once we made it over the bridge, to our surprise, we saw three more villagers just camping out on a higher cliff. Just sitting ducks just waiting to get shot. Immediately, they spotted and I was about to shoot on of them, until Bill stopped me and made everyone else lower their guns. Why? Well the villagers didn't have any weapons on them at all, they were just camping, and it would be un-sportsmen like to fire on them. What harm could they do us anyway? What else than to tell the others. They got up and started to leave in a hurry while still giving us a mean look.

_"¡Los forasteros!"_ Shouted one the men.

_"¡Allí están!" _Said the next.

_"¡A avisar a los demás!"_ Said the other as they left into the woods and out of sight, just like that dog earlier. We knew that one of them said "There they are," the rest of the dialogue just clouded our heads, but Louis knew them and it was trouble.

"...shit," he said.

"What? What did they say?" I asked him. He looked worried as he turned his head to the way we came and looked back at us.

"Great job Bill, now they're going to tell the whole village we're here!" He said to him with a worried look.

"Well how the Hell do you know that?" Francis asked, forgetting he knew their language.

"...because Francis," he started to explain, "One of them told them to 'warn the others'. Now everyone knows we're here, because Mr. Veteran here didn't want us to shoot 'em." A lot of us didn't like Bill's methods and how he kept bossing us around, which created more tension. He didn't care if people liked him or not, as long as we're still alive, I didn't question him like the two. So then, Bill just continued walking forward ignoring us. "Hey where you going? Don't you ignore me!"

"Louis please don't make a big deal of this," I said as we caught up with Bill down the path.

"Look, I just want this mission to go smooth," he said, "And the last thing we need is a whole country coming to kill us!"

"You can't possibly think everyone here is out to kill us," Bill said when we stopped near another shake on the path.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking Bill, that's what I mean," he answered, "And those were just locals back there!" The argument continued and tensions between the group began to rise, totally ignoring our surroundings. I didn't feel safe stopping in the middle of the woods, I never knew what would come out behind the trees. In the middle of the argument, I suddenly heard footsteps. Footsteps that I sounded low moving. It was obviously a villager coming from somewhere and I was the only one that could hear it.

"Louis," Bill said calmly, "If we followed your mice-sized instincts back home, we wouldn't ever make it across a block!"

"Is that right?" Louis shouted, "Then give me one good reason why any of us should go with 'your' instincts!" The from out of the old shake, came a yell, a yell that caught us off guard.

"Aghh!" Yelled the villager jumping from the open door. By surprise, the crazed man was about to attack Louis with hand scythe from behind. Francis and I started to shoot him save Louis, but Bill took the first, kill shot to the head. He quickly shot him dead with his rifle and saved Louis. He had that scared look on his face when he turned to Bill. He was shaking and quivering when he thought he was going to die by bullet or scythe. With one puff of his smoke, Bill said to him," Because unlike you, I didn't spend my army days pushing pencils..." That really shut him up and made Francis chuckle a bit. Louis was going to apologies, but he knew Bill would just throw it in his face. Later, we came to a big gate closing the path in front of us. It looked real old and was made of iron, like something I see at a history museum. Bill checked to see if it was locked and it was unlocked. We pushed the gate open and proceeded down the path. It was getting colder and colder still each time we moved deeper in that region. It was almost dark after all and with rain soon to come, might as well get use to it.

Then finally, when I was starting to complain, a small town was just ahead of us. I wanted to rejoice, but it certainly wasn't the time for it. Me and the team moved in slow behind the trees, trying to get a good look at the village. The rural village was...actually, pretty decent. It was like an everyday farm village. People working outside wearing dirty cloths, pushing wheelbarrows, raking hay to feed the cows in the shed, and feeding the little chickens running around while cursing each other in their own language. Just like home. There wasn't any fire anywhere to light the town, but anyone can see well on cloudy days, right? It seemed peaceful, but the strange thing was that there were no kids running around happily; playing or laughing. All we saw were grown folks, so we assumed they were inside the houses. Finding a good cover spot, Bill called us over to a nearby bush. We started to discuss the strange manner and come up with a plan.

"Hm, nothing unusual here," he whispered quietly, "Just farm folk."

"I know right?" I said quietly, "I was expecting them to have, I don't know, a dead corpse being burned in a bonfire. These people look normal compared to the others."

"Maybe we could ask them about the president's daughter," Louis suggested, "They might give us a clue on were she is."

"Don't let the appearance fool you Louis," Bill said letting out a puff of smoke, "Like sleeping dogs, we don't know if they're hostile or not. Best to go around them."

"Man, now you're comparing them with sleeping dogs?" Louis said, "The girl's in this village somewhere and we need to find her now," For once, Bill had to agree with Louis. She was in one of the house and we had to get her back. So Bill came up with a brilliant plan.

"Ok here's what we're going to do," Bill took the cigaret for a minute, "Zoe, you and Louis cover both east and west side of the village. Me and Francis will...Francis?" As you may have guessed, the hardheaded biker left us in the middle of the discussion without saying a word. We we're too preoccupied with each other to notice. "Francis where are you?" Then when we turned our heads, there walked Francis in front of the village, catching all eyes. He put his hands in the air and declared peace among the villagers...what an idiot.

"Hola villager people!" He shouted, "I come in peace and I mean you no harm, comprende?" The closer he walked into the village scared all the chickens away in his path. All the village men and woman looked at him with confusion. They didn't attack or anything, just being confused as they started to the others.

_"¿Que el infierno este lunático?"_

_"Un forastero, que apuesto."_

_"Nosotros debemos el Cabrón!"_ I wondered what they were saying. Louis said it wasn't good, that they were going to kill him. I couldn't believe it...even the seemingly nice farm folk wanted us dead. What is this place? What was this village? Either way, we had to go in and help before he gets killed.

"Look, I'm on a mission to rescue some American girl ok? So have any of you seen her by any chance?" He continued. One of the village women picked up a pitchfork while he was talking and calmly walked in his direction. The idiot didn't want to attack her since, he wanted to make peace with them, too bad they didn't accept it. With one pull on the pitchfork, she was about to put extra holes in his head. Closer and closer she got, but I came just in time to shot her down to the ground. A few bullets to the head and she was dead...the villagers didn't like what I did, not one bit.

_"iObtenerlos!"_ A man yelled as all the crazed people grabbed their weapons and rushed towards us. Francis finally grabbed his shotgun and began to boom them in the chests as we joined in. Right then, we had ourselves an old fashion shoot out. We shot and shot them trying to defend ourselves. More came from the houses and some came from other paths, but no matter how many there were, non of them could touch us an I really enjoyed it. One by one they fell on the ground crying in pain and then got back up to fight; this was getting tiresome for Bill, for he wanted to find Ashley in the middle of this chaos. When started to scatter from villagers, he reloaded his rifle and shot some villagers out of the way to make a path for us.

Apparently he wanted us to head to the only second story house and search for her. He'd expected she would be there. Then over all the screaming, he yelled, "Everyone! Into this house!" Not arguing, Louis and I quickly ran over to the house as Bill kicked the door open for us. I called for Francis to follow, but he was having so much fun blowing the brains out of those people to hear me. I cried out for him to get in, but when he heard me, he said no. He was like, "You kidding? This is like target practice!" He was going to hold them off for us, alone. So I closed the door shut. Once I did, Louis barricaded the door with a heavy old desk so that the villagers couldn't get in. He got tired after moving the thing. As for Bill, he quickly searched the house to find Ashley so that we could leave. So far he found nothing but some more green herbs in the old cabinets in the kitchen.

Hearing Francis' laughter outside made me want to stir from the mission and see if he was still alright. The windows were nailed with wood and made it impossible to get a clear view. It was like they didn't want anyone in or out of the house, gave me a hunch of what happened to the children. Luckily, there was a big crack in one of the front windows and I could see a bit of the action. I saw Francis out in the field shooting villagers in the legs, but when I looked to my left, I saw three villagers huddled near the cows, plotting something.

"What's going on?" Louis moved close to my head trying to see the action too.

"I think they're plotting," I said getting worried, "They probably seen us come in here." Then we heard some of the villagers talking close by as one of them banged on the door with his fists.

_"iExtraños! Aquí!"_

_"iNo les dejes escapar, tontos!"_ I had no idea what they were saying, again, thank goodness Louis was there to translate.

"Ousiders, here...don't let the escape, fools," he translated, then they said something that made him worry too.

_"Convocatoria de guerreros..."_

"Call for warriors? Who are these villagers?" He asked.

"I don't know," answered Bill from the stairs, "But what I do know is that you two better help me find this Ashley right now!" He looked angry and I couldn't blame him. We started to head up he stairs to search more ground...until it happened. A thunderous roar suddenly shook the air

"RRRRrrRRAAAHHHHH!" A roar that made us stop in our tracks. Me and the guys knew what it was...but didn't want to believe it. I looked out the wood crack again and everyone outside was looking out in the woods, away from our direction. Francis, being as nervous towards certain danger, started to step backwards. "RRAAAAAHHHHHHhh!" The same roar echoed throughout the cold air. Since that wasn't enough, we felt the earth shaking step by step. *B-boom* B-boom* Louder and louder it cameI knew for certain it was coming for us...

"FRANCIS!" I yelled out, "GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Francis acted fast and ran towards the house. Since he was far off to the woods, it took him a while to make it to make it to the center plaza of the village. He was almost to the house, until he looked behind him and saw a massive, red tractor falling from the sky. It flew towards him and just before it hit him, he jumped out of the way, and the old tractor crashed to the ground. Fell apart in an instant. Francis was s shocked that he still sat on the ground, thanking for the close call. We wondered, what powerful thing could throw an entire tractor like that? Who or what? What else than our worst musclebound foe...the Tank.

"RRaaahhHHH!" The thing we feared the most somehow found us there in Europe. It was one of the special group of the infected and the strongest of them all. I remember the first time I saw one of them back home. Me and the boys were just scouring the city, then all of a sudden, one of those things crashed through a brick wall and attacked us. Tanks always consisted of being men. Their legs measured to a human's, but their upper body and arm muscles were 10x the size of a body builder. The arms were freakishly overgrown and were longer than the body that it made the tank walk on it's knuckles and feet like a gorilla. The only thing laughable was that their heads were small sized and could hardly see left to right with their oversized shoulders. We could make fun of it's head, but not it's strength.

"Holy shit! TANK!" Francis got up quickly and headed towards the house, but the Tank was hot on his trail. It moved in fast and Francis couldn't shack him. More and more the Tank caught up and once he got close enough to his back, *Pow*! The Tank launched Francis towards the house we were in with it's right fist! "AAahhh"! He flew right towards us with great speed, until finally, he crashed through the second story window. The sound of glass breaking made Louis cringe in shock. We had to go see if Francis was alright, so we rushed upstairs and found him lying the bedroom floor. Bill quickly helped him up and checked for wounds.

"You're alright Francis?" He asked, Francis didn't have wounds or anything, just a little crack in the back amazingly.

"I'm good I'm good," he answered straightening his back, "Ugh, it's a good thing I'm indestructible..." Yeah, what a crock; he was always full of himself. Then we heard the villagers laughing outside which signified their overconfidence. The Tank was still out there and any moment he could've crashed in to get us. There was no time to question why it was here, all I wanted to do is get out of this place.

"Guys!" I said in shock, "We need to get out of here now!"

"Zoey calm down," Bill said giving Francis the shotgun he dropped on the floor, "We handled Tanks back then and we can handle one here dammit!" Then all of a sudden, we heard a horridness coughing in the background. "Hehee-ugheehe-ehe!" We thought it was Louis since he was the only one we didn't see coughing, but it wasn't him either. "What was it?" We said. Bill took a look through a closed, dirty window on the side of the room and see what was happening. From what I saw, looking behind him, a small green smog was moving slowly across the roof beside ours. The disgusting smog reminded us of another special infected we met in the past.

"Smoker!" Bill yelled getting ready to shoot it, but a Smoker has this ability to shoot it's long tongue at the speed of a bullet and it broke through the window before Bill could fire. The diseased tongue Tangled Bill's body and carried him off though the window. Their tongues are so strong, once you get tangled in one of those things, escaping is useless.

"Bill!" I yelled as seeing him being tugged by the Smoker to the other roof. I acted fast and hopped out the window. I had a clear shot of the Smoker and I shot it's tongue with my pistol before Bill feel from our first story rooftop. While Bill was freeing himself of the tongue, I fired off at that smog before he could escape. A few hits to the head and that Smoker was done. Before I could do anything else, I still haven't forgotten the Tank near the house.

"RRRAAAH!" It yelled as it climbed to the roof with it's massive hands, tearing it apart trying to get to us. We had to get back inside, it wouldn't have helped if we tried to outrun it outside. I helped Bill up and headed back to the open window. That's when I saw Francis come out of the window holding his shotgun at us. I asked him what he was doing, but his one word answered our question.

"HUNTER!"

*BOOM*! He blasted the incoming predator behind us! It looked that it launched itself at us to scratch us to death, but that what Hunters do. A Hunter is another special infected that was the fastest of them all. They're easy to kill, but hard to see coming because they generally stay in the shadows. Those hooded predators stalks you until you're completely alone, they leap, pin you down, and scratch out your organs with it's sharp fingernails. Good thing Francis was there to help. Thanking him had to wait because the Tank was about to reach us from behind and we quickly went back inside. We asked Bill what to do and he told us to head back downstairs, go outside and try to take down the Tank in the open.

We went downstairs and saw the Villagers breaking through the nailed window. Louis, of all people, decided to go commando and rushed down with his automatic SMG and barraged them with bullets. All of them fell down to the ground and made us a clear entrance to the window. Louis, Bill, and I jumped through while Francis was lollygagging on the steps. He was almost made it to the window but then-

*BOOM*!

The Tank wrecked his way downstairs to the living room and separated us from Francis. The Tank slammed his knuckles on the wooden floor with rage and launched himself through the window wall!

*BOOMM*!

It ran after us and ignored Francis inside. Francis could've helped us, but no, he decided to go back on the roof and give us aerial backup...I really hate him. While the Tank knocked some villagers out of the way, we fired everything we had at it. We ran away and fired at the same time. Running for our lives and firing to kill it. If we ever decided to split up and hide behind buildings, it would find one f us and we had to save our member. That's why we stuck together. Later when it started to circle us around the house, Francis finally stood from the shattered rooftop and fired off at the Tank.

"Yeah! Get some you S.O.B.!" Francis yelled booming his shotgun at it. A few shots from the top back made it angry. It turned around and spotted Francis on the roof.

"RRrraaaHH!" It stuck it's arms into the dirt and somehow lifted a huge bolder from the ground. It locked onto Francis and hurled the boulder at him like it was beach ball! I looked at Francis, wondering what he was going to do. He acted fast and didged the boulder.

*BAM*!

Though he dodged it, the impact the boulder had on the roof made him trip and fall down to the ledge. Hanging onto the ledge and called us to help him.

"Agh! Help me!" He yelled, but we were to preoccupied with the Tank to help. The Tank chased us again and lead us to the center of the village. I didn't know how much more this thing could take...we were almost out of ammo. Seconds behind us, Bill stopped, got on his right knee, and aimed at the monster. It got closer and closer to him and as the monster rose it's arms for an attack, he fired his rifle at it's head.

*BOW*! One clear shot through the head was all it had left to give. The Tank fell on it's little knees, slammed to the ground, and the beast was done. We relaxed at that moment, thanking Bill once again for saving us. He didn't want us to thank just then, for more trouble came our way. In the center of the village, we looked around us and saw the horror of it all.

"RRahahaRAH!-RRahaaa!- AaahhhHH! It was...unbelievable where the roars came from... Four more Tanks, count 'em "four" Tanks, came from opposite sides of the village. And if that wasn't enough, dozens of villagers came from the woods with more pitchforks, synths, and an angry man with a chainsaw wearing a sack over his head. We heard the roars...we heard the chainsaw...and we heard menacing growls coming from afar. As they started to surround us in a big circle, I looked at Bill with a worried look on my face. He knew what we were feeling and couldn't blame us. There was no way we could escape that horde and I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes...I even started to cry. All of them rushed at us and it was sure to be over...maybe, sooner than I thought. We then heard something that could be heard throughout the land...a bell...

*DOONNNNG*!

*DOONNNNG*!

That bell came from a far away church on a far away hill in the north. At first I thought it was death's bell with everyone trying to kill us, but it soon turned to the phrase: "Saved by the Bell." That one bell made all the villagers and Tanks stop in their tracks. All of them gazed at the church with awe and suddenly ignored us. They even dropped their weapons too...what was happening? Why were they suddenly dazed by the bell? The villagers started speaking softly while looking at the church.

_"La campana.."_

_"Es hora de rezar..tenemos que irnos."_

"...Louis, what are they saying?" I asked while trying to wipe my little tears.

"Uh, 'The bell', 'Time to go pray', and 'We gotta go," he answered, in an odd way, it all mad sense. These people were a religious bunch and couldn't resist worship times. If it weren't for that bell, we would've been dead. Once they finished dropping their weapons to the ground, the Tanks vanished to the woods and the villagers all gathered in to one house near the edge of the village and locked it shut. They were all gone and it was the strangest thing I ever witnessed and was glad it ended like that. Once Louis sighed with gladness, I sat down on the ground to rest.

"Well that was strange," Bill said letting a puff of smoke out in the cold air, "They stopped because of that bell."

"Well no duh Bill, you think they're off to go bowling?" I said searching for some bullets to put n my pistol, but I soon realized that there was only one bullet in my pocket, "...dammit."

"Look, the bell was a shot in a million to make these guys stop," Louis said, "But the question on mind is...how the Hell did all these infected follow us here to Europe!"

"Maybe they didn't follow us," Bill said reloading his rifle, "Maybe they been here from the start." Out of this conversation, we suddenly forgot about Francis' predicament on the roof.

"Guys! A little help over here!" He yelled still hanging onto the ledge, but, we ignored him because, he was only hanging from the first story ledge. But since he was such a baby about heights, he was scared he was going to fall from the ledge and die...

"...Bill if Tanks, Hunters, and other kinds of them are here, why aren't the villagers infected?" Louis asked while Bill started to walk off to the hut were the cows were. It was amazing they were still alive after the fight. He looked at the somewhat diseased cows and started to ponder. "...Do you hear me man?"

"Yes I hear you Louis, "Bill said back, "That's why I'm thinking. The villagers seem to be normal, but hard to kill...the special infected all seem to come at us and not the villagers...and a church bell seems to attract them. I'm as lost in the dark as the rest of ya." I really preferred he didn't say dark, because everything was getting dark by the minute...

"Ok, joke's over!" Francis yelled still hanging for dear life, "Someone get their ass over here and pull me up!" ...we still ignored him.

"But the important thing is to find this Ashley girl and get out of here ASAP," Bill continued.

"Yeah...I'm with you on that," I said still sitting on the ground.

"Well she's obviously not here," said Louis, "She might be near the church on that far away hill."

"Might be," Bill said puffing smoke, "But just to be safe, lets search this village anyway. We might some useful stuff or a clue to what's going on here." So we stopped talking and set off for the surrounding houses. Once we started to move, we saw Francis starting to loose his grip on the roof ledge. He was as scared of falling as we were scared of the horde.

"AGHH!" He yelled, "I'm slipping! Pull me up! I'm gonna fall!"

"Francis you idiot! You're not going to die ok?" I yelled at him, but he didn't listen. He lost his grip and fell off the ledge crying.

"Huuhh! AHHHahahhh!" He cried as he finally fell...down 10 feet to the ground on his back..., "Ugh!...Hey, hey, I'm alive?"

"Francis this ain't the city man," Louis making a good statement, "You can't just fall from a first story roof and die, ok?" Francis felt relived and glad he survived that "Near death experience." He even chuckled a little.

"Hehh, oh right," he said, "Hehh, I hate heights..."

So, like I said before, the first step in this kind of mission was like stepping in an ant hill. Unexpected with horrible results, only it wasn't server as I thought, we still had long way to go. We had to the presidents daughter and figure out what happened in this part of Europe, but mostly find the girl and get out here in one piece. As we spread out in the village, searching for whatever, a thought still haunted my mind after seeing those four Tanks at the same time, there were going to be more. There were going to be more things coming out to kill us out there...more things...out there.


	3. Chapter 3: Barn Boys

**Chapter 3: Barn Boys**

The village was empty by then, all who were left were just me, the three guys, and the dead bodies of the deranged villagers. On the ground, in their own homes, and maybe some on the rooftops. I don't know how many were killed, I'd never kept track of something like that. When all was clear, Bill gave the order to search the area for anything we could find useful. He searched the cow pens, Louis searched the outer huts up the road, I searched the houses, and Francis went to the lumber area away from sight; probably trying to smoke those green herbs we found earlier. From what I found, I was surprised how much ammo the villagers left stashed away in their houses, even weirder in the kitchen pots. How could they have that much stuff and hardly any guns to fire with? After checking most of the houses, the last one I haven't checked was the two story house. As I went walked in through the big hole the Tank made in the front, I couldn't help but think about the kids here. That's what I had in my head ever since we came there. Where are all the children?I wanted to find at least one. The ruined kitchen was out of the question, so I made my way up stairs by climbing whatever was left of the stairway. On my way up, I found an old fashion shotgun just mounted on the wall. It looked real old and dirty, but loading it with some shotgun shells I found proved to be in good condition. I turned to my left and saw the destruction the Tank had on the open roof window, I.E., another big hole in the wall. I the left corner I found the dirtiest bed I have ever seen. I was soggy, pelted with dirt, and smelled day old crap. I didn't want go near the thing, but then I saw something under the bed. I went over to check it out to see if was more ammo stashed away, but I was dead wrong. I got down to my knees and looked under the bed. It was dark and hard to make out but it gave me a clear idea of what happened to the children. Old, little, clothed skeletons were pilled under the bed like they were trash...I couldn't stand the sight of it all. I couldn't imagined what they been through.

"Time to move gang!" Bill yelled from the plaza wanting us to finish up, as if we didn't want to make anymore noise. We all got together in less than a minute and showed whatever we managed to find. "Ok, nothing in the cow bins but some old chicken eggs. We can use these to eat on an empty stomach. What did ya'll find?"

"I found some ammo for my pistol and shot gun I found in that house over there," I said trying to strap it on my back.

"Lucky," Louis said with a grim look on his face, "All I found in those huts were some damn snakes."

"Ha! I found some more weed!" Francis then held some red herbs planted in a pot with an old piece of orange paper stuffed on the side in our faces, feeling happy on his discovery, "Guns, ammo, and weed? I'm tellin' ya, these guys are loaded!"

"Francis I'm sure these guys have better stuff to hide other than weed man", Louis said looking away at the long distance church.

"Like, pot mixed with whisky maybe?," all of us just starred at that creep, but all he really wanted was just to lighten the mood. "What? It was a joke guys, Jesus."

"We are preparing for the blood hungry horde up ahead in those woods," said Bill, "What we need to care about is finding this Ashley girl and you're over here talking about smoking poisonous grass." Bill walked off to the dirt road ahead and ordered us to follow, like the little sheep he saw us as. Trying to check out at the church through the woods would probably be up Bill's alley, but he thought it'll be safe to continue up the dirt road instead.

Before leaving the village, we came across another gate with a strange symbol on it like the last one. Francis and Louis immediately pushed it open. Once open fully, we moved on. To our discovery, we found another smaller settlement up ahead, a farm. Not ones with a big field full of corn or full of life. It was just dead like the village a barn house near a leafless tree, a creaking windmill messy cow den that could be smelled from a mile, a poorly built shake to our left, and for some reason a rusty dumpster in front of us.

"Great, a barn," Francis sighed, "I hate barns. Hopefully there's no chainsaw handlin' maniac here that wears a guy's face for a mask."

"This is Europe Francis, not Texas," Louis said.

"Humph, tell that to the guys with pitch forks we nailed back there," he said back, then Bill shushed us.

"Shhh!" He ordered us to be quiet and get down behind a small hill near the old tree. We looked closer at his direction and saw farmer raking some hay with an old pitchfork. It was strange to us that lone farmer didn't mind the bell. "Apparently someone didn't hear the bell."

"Or maybe, he just came back from sunday school," Francis still made jokes. He wasn't going to stay behind cover like a Bill clone, so he decide to stand up and aimed his shot gun at the farmer. "Come on let's just shoot this guy!" Bill was going to make get back down, until something happened we've seen about a thousand times before. From the top of the barn house, the long and rope-like tongue of a Smoker latched itself around Francis' neck and pulled him closer to the farmer. "SMOKER!"

The farmer heard his yell and turned around to see the choking biker. He grunted a couple times and he finally lifted his dirty pitchfork and was ready to impale him good. Holding his own, Francis quickly held his shotgun to the farmer's face and blew his head clean off. *Boom*! I looked up at the Smoker on the roof twisting his head and for some reason I knew they were getting smarter. With a coughing smog and tug from his tongue, he released Francis from the hold and took his shotgun instead. The Smoker then jumped off the roof behind the house and ran down the road with his gun. Once Francis noticed what happened, we can all tell he was incredibly pissed off. You can take a man's life, but never his gun, he'd like to say.

"You son of a bitch!" Francis yelled at the top of his lungs. Predictable as he was, he ran after the smoker behind the barn to get his gun. Normally we wouldn't care what he does in that kind of rage, but in that country, we had to stick together. We chased Francis to the back trying to make him stop, but he continued to chase that Smoker that was slowly getting out of his sight. We then saw another gate up the road as we saw the Smoker jump over the gate and Francis followed kicking it open. Once we got passed it, we saw him still running, but no Smoker in sight. It was gone, but that didn't stop Francis though. We eventually caught up with him in a narrow pathway with cliffs on each side, like the path was heading downwards to the earth.

"Egh, where'd that Smoker go with my gun?" He said out of breath. I wanted to tell him he'll find another gun eventually, but he would never go with that suggestion. He wouldn't, for when he looked at me with desperation, I knew he wanted the shotgun I hand on my back. "Hey Zoey, let me have that blowout on your back."

"Blowout?" I asked since I never heard someone call a gun that before, "You mean my shotgun? I don't think so! You guys keep getting the big guns while I'm stuck with a pistol!"

"Oh quit being an ass!" He said getting angrier, approaching me in demand for the gun, "You and I both know big arms are my speciality!" Once the argument rose between us, Bill walked towards us, snatched the pistol from my hand, and planted it on Francis' chest.

"There, experiment with that," he said blowing more smoke from his mouth. Francis didn't like that at all, but if he wanted to survive, he had to deal with it.

"Grr, I hate little guns," he grunted, "I need bigger guns man!"

"Heh, why? So you can compensate for something?" Louis chuckled a little with me as we walked down the path.

"...shut up," he said following the rest of us. As we kept walking down the path, we felt a slight chill from the wind, making us shiver. It was getting colder as we walked on, but the strange wind currents was a sign of danger for Bill. He stopped and made use listen closely to, whatever he wanted us to listen for. It was of course the leaves being brushed away by the breeze, but he heard something else. To me, besides the wind, it was like a small grunt and a little crackling noise. I didn't know what it was. Bill looked back up the path, like us, and noticed an enormous boulder moving on one of the cliffs. We looked closer and it looked like it was being lifted by something. Then we heard the familiar roar of a Tank.

"RRRAagghh!" It echoed through out the cliffside as that monstrous beast lifted that boulder like a dumbbell. We were amazed by the strength of it, but maybe too long, as it launched the boulder straight at us and we knew in a nano second, that we needed to run, fast.

"Move people! Move!" Bill yelled running down the path as the boulder rolled on down our way. Yes we ran, ran for our very lives like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. We yelled our breath out trying to outrun that thing, but it was slowly moving closer and closer towards us at rushing speed. I kept worrying I was going to trip, fall, and get flattened, but I didn't stop for anything. We kept moving left to right on and on down the path, wishing their was a cave to block that raging boulder. Luckily, Bill found a small open spot that was offside of the path and ordered us to rush in there at the same time. At a fraction of a second, with the boulder near an inch of our hairs, we jumped and rolled in the spot dodging the boulder just in time!

It rolled passed us and *Boom*! It crashed and collapsed near a dead end wall. Once it was over, all of us caught our breath and celebrated our survival with small smiles and laughs, except Bill of course. All he did was take another blow from his cigarette.

"Haha! We made baby!" Louis said in laughter.

"Phew, man, I think I pissed my drawers back there!" Francis said sweating and panting.

"...strange," Bill said killing the mood, "That Tank didn't chase us down here."

"Bill please," I said, "Just be glad we're all alive ok?" With another puff of smoker, he nodded and agreed for once.

"Ok fine," he said, "*Sigh* lets keep moving people, I think I saw a small tunnel were that boulder crashed over there." It wasn't a cave but there was a tunnel at the end of the path, leading us further in the woods of course. We followed and entered the dark and damp cave. We walked slowly and had our guard up in case anything should pop up somewhere. But surprisingly, other than drips of water coming from the cracked bricks in the ceiling, nothing else came out of the tunnel but bats. When we came close to them, they squeaked at us and flew out from where we came. One of those rats with wings touched my hair and I squeaked as well. Francis laughed at me.

"Aww, is someone afraid of some little fruit bats?" He chuckled a little, "Ah I don't blame ya, I hate those buggers too."

A few seconds later, we exited the tunnel and found ourselves in another area with a few wrecked houses and huts in a dead grassed field. At least it looked like we were getting a little closer to the church, but I couldn't help but feel that this area would've been crawling with Hunters and Smokers. Hunters especially because of the tall grass in the area. We walked forward and nothing happened yet. Once we walked near the wrecked house in front of us, we all heard a sizzling noise coming from the house.

_"iForasteros!"_ Called out a villager from the house. He looked at us through a hole in the barricaded window and launched a stick of dynamite through the roof at us!

"Shit!" Yelled Louis as everyone rolled out of the way of it. *Boom*! It exploded on the ground and carried a large amount of dirt along with it as well.

"Damn it! They have dynamite too?" Francis said taking cover behind some logs. Once he lit another one, I thought it was my time to act right then. He threw out another one out and Bill was ready to fire. Once it was out, I rushed in and grabbed it once it was on the ground. Bill did shoot because he saw me rush in and wondered what the Hell I was doing. Once I picked it up, I tossed it back in that house and *BOOM*! A huge explosion broke out the whole house broke apart from all the dynamite the villager or villagers had. Simply put, I thew it back on their assess.

"Woo! Nice one Zoey!" Louis said, "Took care of all of 'em!" They seemed surprised, but Bill again, always killing the mood with his negativity.

"Zoey that was reckless," he said, "You could've got your arm blown clean off."

"But again, just be glad we're still alive," I said back at the old man, "And you're welcome by the way." He ignored the comment and pressed on into the area. Like I said before, either of us hardly get along together. We followed Bill passed the wrecked and blown house where little smoke came from it and fire emerging. The one detached villager arm I knocked out of my way was enough to know I helped out for once. We then saw another house down our left. A rather suspicious house I might add. It was nothing special, but something about it made me curious. What was inside it? I didn't know. We were about to pass the house, but my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to check it out. "Hey guys, lets check out this house."

"What? Why?" Francis said.

"Maybe we could find some more ammo in here, maybe we could find you a gun Francis." I said trying to make them come along.

"Hm, now that you mention it-"

"Don't even think about guys," Bill said, "We have what we need. You could worry about a better gun later."

"...nah," Francis said, "I'm gonna see if they're stashin' some bazookas in this dump." He was convinced to go in the house.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to look Bill," Louis said following Francis, "We need to grab everything we can."

"Come on Bill, we're safe," I said trying to make him come with us. He sighed a bit. He didn't say anything and followed us into the house. I thought there would be something great here, but looking back, it was one of the biggest mistakes I made back there. We went on the porch and the first thing we saw was a big lock on the door handle, now we knew there was something cool in there.

"Hm, a lock," Francis said, "Stand back guys, I'll handle this. All I need to do is pick the lock and remove it from it's socket." So basically all he did was whip out his pistol and *Bam*! He shot the lock off the door, therefore, unlocking it. It wasn't the efficient way, but it worked. "Heh, I always hated locks. Can't protect jack!" There we entered the deserted house and it looked like the other houses we went into. Dusty, rotten, and never cleaned. We looked around in the living room and found some bullets for Francis' pistol, but in a small cabinet in the corner, Louis found a small chest full of gold coins!

"Wo-ho! Guys! I found some gold over here!" He happily waved it around to show it off.

"Daammnn! Seriously, I'm bettin' there's some bazookas under some beds here!" Francis said. To Louis' knowledge, it was a total of 1,000 ptas. Which wasn't very high in this country and very low in the U.S. in his opinion. As long as it was gold, we didn't really care. During the discovery, we suddenly heard two explosions in the hallway were Bill was at. We rushed in there to see what was up. When we were in the hallway, turned out Bill was fine as usual. He just shot some more wired explosives with his rifle, they were defiantly hiding something here to wire some bombes and put a lock on the door. As Louis stashed the gold in his pockets for "safe" keeping, we progressed on through the house. Suddenly in the hallway, we heard strange pounding sounds in the next room, like someone prying on something. At the end of the hallway we entered another room that seemed empty, only the light through the windows shining down a cabinet, and empty bookshelf , and the dirtiest and muck ridin' couch I've ever laid eyes upon. Besides that, the pounding noise got louder and was in another room. Bill took a closer look and a listen and found there was another room behind the other bookshelf against the wall. Louis and Francis helped push it to the right, opening a path to the other part of the house. We went through and the noise got louder. We turned to our right and found the source of the noise. In a corner was a wardrobe with something pounding to get out. We didn't know what was in there and didn't take any chances. Slowly approaching it, loading our guns, Bill unlocked the wardrobe with a flick and opened on of the doors.

*Thud*!

There fell out only a man with his arms tied up with rope and his mouth covered with duct tape. We didn't if he was a friendly or not so we aimed our guns at him. At the sight, the man mumbled in fear and shook his head, wanting us not to shoot him. He was scared and frightened and seemed normal. Bill kneeled down and quickly removed the tape from the man's mouth.

"AAhh!" He yelled from the pain of the rip, "Ughh, a little rough don't you think old man?" There we knew he was normal, he didn't growl our attack us at all, plus he spoke english. He was the first guy we've seen in the land that wasn't insane. I lowered my gun and I looked at him and to me, he seemed kind of, handsome. His long, dark brown hair fell to his neck, wore sort of old renaissance clothing, and his bluish green eyes were hypnotizing. The only problem was the way he talked. "Mmm, I see you guys brought a senorita with luscious thighs. Now we have a party." He spoke in an Spanish ascent, but it wasn't the acsent that threw me off, it was the fact that he was a pig. "...it's just a joke."

"Lets just get you untied son," Bill said rolling over uniting the notes of the rope from the back. The man wanted answers of his own.

"So you guys aren't, one of 'them'?" He aksed.

"Nah man," Louis said putting away his gun, "We're cool. But, what exactly are 'them'?"

Once Bill untied him, the man sat up feeling his hands and stretching, but the man wanted another question answered, "Ok look, before we get to the details, I got one very important question: you got a smoke?" Fortunately Bill had enough in his pack to share. He handed him a smoke and lighter, anything to get some answers around here. "Ah gracias man!" But before he could relax with a smoke, a big thump on the floor made him drop both. The big thumps were sounding more like footsteps. They got louder and louder and once we looked ahead, we saw two villagers with weapons accompanying a big scary man with a bald head and a long black beard. "Perfect, the big cheese." Wearing a long, pale green jacket and glaring at all of us with one of his good eyes glowing red showed that he meant business.

"So you're the big cheese huh?" Francis said grabbing a long piece of wood from the floor, "Then you must know where that Ashley girl is." The big guy did nothing but glare at us. "Um, hello? Habla English senor?" Again, nothing.

"Don't be stupid Francis!" I said holding the gun at the three of them.

"Hey I got this, he's not armed!" He said moving closer to him, "Now tell us where you hid the girl and then we'll beat the crap out of you and your two stooges later ok?" Still, nothing but glare. "...not talkin' eh? Well maybe you'll talk to this!" Francis rushed min like a crazy dog and was about to strike the man..then it happened. The man positioned himself, gave out a loud roar and *BAM*! With one swift punch to the chest, he sent Francis flying towards us with incredible strength like he had the power of a Tank! *BOOM*! The force knocked us all into the wardrobe, destroying it in the process. He was too strong, I couldn't even move. The pain in my head, caused me to black out, unconscious.

They got us and I didn't know what they were going to do to us. All I could remember was a blurry, dark dream. I was in a misty street back in Philly, alone in the dark where the street lamps were broken and only the blue night sky gave me light. I couldn't move and I was so tired and woozy. Along the lines of that I heard echos throughout the streets. It was a voice I never heard before and it was talking to me in vivid phrases. I don't know how it went fully, but I managed to remember some of the words it said. "Humans...power...resist...intoxicating...power." That's all that went through to me, then, my neck felt an incredible amount of pain. I woke up shortly after that.

"Ahh!" I woke in shock, causing me to bump my head on someone else's. I heard some grunts after the bump. Once my vision came about, I realized my hands were handcuffed together back-to-back on a floor with the guys and we were in some smelly old house. The shackles were too strong to be forced open, especially when it's attached to four other people.

"Ehhh, where are we?" Woke Louis, "Why are we...oh no. Great!"

"_Ai yai yai_. Crawl out of one hole and into another eh guys?" The Spanish man said waking up with us.

"Ah bull freakin' horse shit!" Bill said trying get his hands free, but that only made it worse for the rest of us. "Perfect, we just had to go in that damn house with you Zoey."

"Look I'm sorry Bill ok?" I said trying to move my hands, "W-we can get out of this."

"Hey easy!" Said the man, "These rusty things aren't toys you know?"

"Damn, I hate handcuffs," grunted Francis feeling woozy from the punch. "These guys aren't playin'. Hey stranger, do you mind telling us what the Hell is going on here?" The man turned his head, a little trying to get a good look at us.

"_Americanos, ¿sí? _Now what brings blokes like you to this part of the world?" He asked.

"Ain't on vacation that's for sure," Francis said. I pulled out the picture of Ashley from my pocket and showed it to him right beside me.

"My name is Zoey, that's Francis, the old man is Bill, and the other one's Louis and we're looking for this girl," I said, "Have you seen her by any chance?"

"What, are you guys suppose to be cops or something?" He said, "Pft, you guys don't look the type."

"But have you seen her?" I asked again.

"Okayy let me guess," he said, "She's the president's daughter?"

"...that's way too good of a guess," Louis said, "You have something you wanna share with us?"

"...psychic powers amigo," he said, "...it's just a joke. I heard one of the villagers talking about her being at the church. Say she was being dragged there by some big arm monster with tiny legs. Heh, this land's full of weirdos."

"A Tank," Bill sighed, wishing he had a smoke, "I knew we should've checked out the church."

"Tank?" He said, "Is that what those things are called? Tanks?"

"Yeah," I said, "And there's more than that one set, they're called Special Infected. We've seen a lot of them back in the U.S., but why are they way over here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he sighed, "I'm in the dark about it, they must've traveled here and somehow made friends with these villagers. Try not to think too hard about it."

"Ok...so what's your name?"

"_Me llamo Luis Serra. _Use to be a cop in Madrid, now I'm just a good for nothing guy, who happens to be quit the lady's man."

"So why'd you quit?" Francis asked.

"Pft, well you see ugh, you put your life on the line and people don't appreciate you enough for it," Luis said looking sad, "...being a hero isn't what it's cracked up to be anymore."

"Yeah, I wish I could be a hero," said Louis, "But for the most part, me and these guys just fought our way through zombies in Philadelphia just to survive. Now they sent us here to look for a girl."

"Ah so you must be the four survivors everyone's talking about," Luis said in shock, "Where you took on zombies in America and on number of occasions where supposedly, left for dead."

"Wait a minute, how do you know us?"

"Heard of you guys back in the lab."

"What lab?" Before we could get more answers, a loud growl entered the room with the sound of a rusty axe grinding across the floor. The villager, I thought I killed back when I asked him about Ashley, the one that came at me with a hand axe, now came back with a larger ax for vengeance. I knew it was him, the three holes of bullets I planted in his head and knees where the same. With no weapons on use, we began to panic.

"_¡Te voy a matar! " _He yelled as he slowly rose his ax for the strike. We tried to get out of the cuffs, but it was no use.

"Do something guys!" Luis cried out, we didn't know what to do, but I did. He was aiming for me with the ax and I knew what to do. I quickly moved to the side and just like that, he cut our cuffs off, releasing us. Once he knew he was tricked, he rose his ax again and came right for us. Francis wasn't going to let it harm either of us. When he rushed, he rushed him, grabbed him by the shirt, and tossed that sucker right into the wall where he ultimately cracked his neck with his head connected to the floor. We won another fight.

"Haha! Thought you had the drop on us did ya'?" Francis said stretching his arms, "He Luis did you see-" And just like that, Luis ran out of the house, leaving us here. "Hey what the Hell! Why'd he leave?"

"We all have reasons Francis," Bill said searching for a smoke and lighter on him, but like the guns and ammo, they only left us with the clothes on our backs. We were all pissed and strangely confused at the same time. As long as we were breathing, we were alright. "...great, no guns."

"They even took the gold and weed," Francis sad with a sad face, "Just wait 'till I get my hands on long bearded assho-!"

"Francis please, we can worry about that later," Louis said, "Unless you want that ax over there, we'll need to find something to defend ourselves."

We agreed. We searched the room for some weapons of some sort. Maybe a few shovels maybe, but those weren't going to help against our Special Infected freaks. Then our luck turned around at that part, probably the most help we were going have in this entire mission. I saw a strange hooded figure standing outside the window across the room, just starring at us. I didn't know if he or it was a friendly or not. He spoke in a raspy voice of confidence, "Psst strangers...if you'd be needin' of some weapons, I can provide, over here." There, we found what I like to call, "The Merchant".


	4. Chapter 4: Of doors we find

**Chapter 4: Of doors we find**

The moment he left the window, our curiosity ensued. Who was that guy and what did he want? Down the hall way we out of the house trying to find the strange hooded man. Outside, we found ourselves to be in some part of a canyon. The house was isolated from the valley region. Beyond the walls, a valley filled with wooden bridges that connected to other hills and a small house on the side; over a big pit that from what I seen seemed to be a bottomless abyss. Where exactly did they take us? Maybe the hooded man had some answers. The last I saw him, he went to his right behind the house. We tracked down his trail to the side of the old house and there he stood, the Merchant. The shady man slouched near a lantern that lit with blue flame with his red eyes glowing over his purple scarf he wore over his mouth. His red eyes, were like the villagers. When we saw his glowing eyes, we could help but be cautious. When we starred at each other, the Merchant didn't attack us or move or yell "_iUn forasteros!_" He just stood there, wanting us to come. Bill made his move and stepped towards the merchant slowly. Again, the merchant didn't move a muscle. When Bill got close enough, the merchant finally spoke.

"Got somethin' that might interest ya'. Hehehe hehe!" He grabbed one end of his black coat and revealed to us what he had to offer us, a fine selection of weaponry. We just couldn't believe it. Instead of pain, we actually found a red-eyed person willing to sell us some weapons. Friendly to offer, we came for a closer look. He had standard guns, machine guns, ammo, maps, even some first aid. Our jaws just dropped. "Got a collection of good things on sale, stranjahs."

"Whoo now that's what I'm talking about!" Louis said getting in the way of Bill, "This man's loaded! He even got a TMP on him!"

"Dibs on the shotgun!" Francis demanded, Bill on the other hand still had his suspicions up, so where mine about this guy. Once Francis mentioned the shotgun, the Merchant pulled out the black Riot Shotgun from his side.

"Now wait just a minute," Bill interrupted, "We're not buying anything until we get some answers! Now exactly who are you?"

"...," the Merchant hesitated.

"Not talking huh?" Bill said, "You spoke a second ago, why can't you tell us your name?"

"...," he hesitated again, eventually he spoke, "...whaddya' buyin'?"

"Nothing until we know your name."

"...whaddya sellin'?"

"A first class ticket to the morgue if you don't tell us who the Hell you are."

"...I, I, can't remember..." He didn't even know his name. Sad and pathetic. A combination Bill didn't want to fool with. "...but, I do know how ya' round up down here. Couple of locals dropped ya' off. Handcuffed n' all."

"Well we could've figured that out, Merchant," I said obviously, "You become captain obvious, but haven't given us a name, why?"

"...because in a long, long while, no one here asked me who I was, nor cared," he said, "Lets just say it has been sometime ago. You're probably wonderin' way I'm not as hostile like the rest. Well I'm just a simple Merchant. That's what they call me and that's all I ever be. You hand me cash and I supply."

"Ok, fine with me," said Francis, "So how much for the shotgun?"

"Not enough cash, strangjah. The locals who dropped ya' here isn't stupid enough to leave ya' with your belongings."

"Wait...ah, damn it!" He said checking his pockets, "They took our gold too! But how'd you-?"

"Like I said, not stupid enough. Well then," said the Merchant putting the gun away, "Since ya'll are low on cash, I'm afraid I have to bid farewell, but comeback anytime." He hooked the part of his coat back together, closing the inventory, and wanted us to leave. Knowing his shady type, the items he was selling weren't cheap at all. It was going take a lot of time to find a whole bunch of gold Pesetas to please him. It looked like we had no choice but to carry on, but Bill didn't. With no guns, knives, or smokes, he didn't have the nerve to go out there unarmed. He asked the Merchant to lend us some guns, but he refused and Bill was getting a bit frustrated. He breathed to relax, then out of nowhere he kicked the Merchant's legs causing him to fall to the ground, grabbed the iron torch, and pressed it against the Merchant's neck. I was shocked it was Bill who made a move like that and not Francis.

"Bill what are you doing?" I said.

"We need weapons right here and now," he said making sure he couldn't get up, looking him dead in the eyes, "You are the only one who can help us and we are not going to run around searchin' for some freakin' cash while these monsters are trying to kill us! Now either cooperate or you'll end up another casualty!"

"Heghh, you're a crazy old man ain't ya?" He said said trying to push the torch away. Bill pressed harder to the neck and made him choke. "Agh! Alright! Alright! You win!" He just gave up like that. Bill calmed down and tossed the iron to the ground, giving the Merchant a chance to get up and recover his breath. "Stranjah, stranjah...you better be glad the villagers weren't 'ere eavesdroppin'. Otherwise they'll have your heads on a bloody plater."

"Well they aren't," Bill said, "Now make this easy for all of us and lend us your guns."

"Heh heh, no please nor cash. Ya drive a hard bargain stranjah."

"That's Bill," said Louis, "When he runs out of smokes, he doesn't fuck around."

"And fucked around he did," Merchant said in a rude manner. He reached in his coat pocket and tossed Bill a pack of cigarettes and an old lighter. We could see he was pleased. "You got a lot of guts stranjah, tryin' to treaten' me in cold blood. I like that. If whut you guys are after is that important, then allow me to make this one on the house."

"For free? Really?"

"Ya can say that." He opened his coat back up showing his huge collection, "But make note of this, next time we meet, you bunch better have some cash on ya or somethin' valuable to sell. Otherwise I'll take my business elsewhere. Deal?"

"...deal."

"Good. Heh heh heh!" So he let us have the pick of our guns as well as first aids. Two handguns I took as well as two fist aid spray. Bill grabbed himself just a rifle with a built in scope lens. Louis took the TMP and a map of our entire location. Francis of course took the Riot Shotgun with the strap and cocked it to make sure it was ready for firing, it was in good condition. As well as ammo went, we grabbed enough to last us the whole trip. Louis saw something other the Merchant was stashing in his many pockets, our old radio that went down with our car the first time we came here! How did he manage to get his hands on it? He must have been scouring the river at the time or were we gone long enough for him to find it in time? Either way, strange enough, I thanked him for recovering it. He said he'd been getting calls from people he never heard or seen before. Louis checked it out and it was in rather good shape and put it in his left pocket.

The Merchant was very helpful that day and we were blessed to meet him, but we still had our suspicions. A few questions were asked like, who's doing all this? He said, he didn't really know. Why were the villagers being what they are and being friendly with the Special Infected? He didn't know either, he didn't really have much to tell, but he did tell us were to go from here. "Across that canyon," he said, "There be a door that has been locked. The only way to open it is to acquire two stone pieces. The villagers hid them, not too far nor too well. In treasure chests they be, on the first house on the left and on the high cliff on the right. But beware stranjahs, they won't be lettin' ya go so easily. Hehe." We knew what we had to do, so we pressed on. I wanted him to come with us, but, he said he like to be in the shadows. 'Till next time Merchant.

After that encounter, we made our way back in front of the house to see the iron doors that lead to the small canyon. Before we went through, Bill eyed a small crack in the walls. We stood quietly as he cleverly used his scope on his rifle to see what was ahead. It didn't take a while for him to speak some words to us.

"Well the Merchant was right," he said coming back, "The door across there is missing a couple of stones. To top it off, more villagers up ahead. I think one eyeballed a second ago, so we need to make haste."

"Don't have to tell us twice Bill," said Francis. Before we could do anything else, the radio in Louis' pocket finally began go off. It was more of a signal that someone was contacting us. Anxious to hear who it was, he turned it on and held it up to his ear. The fuzz noise from it was loud enough for us all to hear it, so he had to take it out of his ear and look at it. The two screens that were attached began to pull up an outgoing image from us and an incoming image of a woman who was suppose to reach us fro the start.

"H-hello? Can you guys hear me?" Said the woman.

"Yes we can, over," Louis said as we looked at the video of her on the screen.

"The 'over' statement won't be necessary Louis. As long as I can see and hear you guys, it's fine," She said. She appeared to be a studious type woman that wore reading glasses and a black business suit. She looked young, almost to my age, I thought she would be a little older. "Besides the that, what in the heck happened to you guys! I've been trying to contact you for like an hour ago!"

"Wow! Watch the language lady!" Francis joking around, "Zoey's just a little girl!"

"Shut it Francis!" I commanded shutting him up, "Lady we're fine, but who are you exactly?"

"Glad you asked," she said, "I'm Ingrid Hunningan. I'll be your support on this mission."

"Well it's a little late for that miss," Bill said, finally lighting himself a new smoke, "There's more stuff happening over here than just kidnapping."

"What do you mean?"

"Hostile locals attacking outsiders like us for no reason and on top of that, the Special Infected from the US somehow made it over here to kill us as well."

"Wait slow down, did you say the 'Special Infected'? But how? Those things were only found in the west."

"That's what we're trying to figure out girl," said Louis, "But in the mean time, we have the location of the President's daughter. She seems to be held up in a church around here."

"Good work guys," she said, "Nice to hear you're making progress. Call me back when have more intel." Before we could ask for some backup, she signed off the radio. It really goes to show that the government like that hardly gave a damn about anybody. They wouldn't bother to send more forces for help on an assignment like that. It's not like we were looking for anyone "important" or anything. Aside, Louis put the radio back in his pocket and we began to strategize on how to get past the canyon quick.

The plan was to spilt up into two teams. Two of us will go for the stone tablet that was in the chest on the roof of the house and the other on the cliff. Louis and I got the house while Bill and Francis got the cliff. Bill figured if anything went wrong in the house, he would have the high ground to gun down the villagers. The plan was simple, but I thought would it go well enough for Francis not to screw everything up? I decided to keep it to myself.

"Ok, you guys ready?" Bill said standing next to the gate.

"Yeah yeah, we're ready man," Francis said feeling uneasy, "This is no different from the other times. We're strapped and they don't stand a chance." So he felt to rush in again. He kicked the side of the gate open and fired round at the first sight of a villager just wondering near the gate. When first one was took out, he thought it'd be easy. Just then when we followed, I saw a lone villager on the roof of the house threw a small axe towards us. I tried to warn them, but the axe struck Francis in the back and made him hit the ground.

"Francis!" I yelled, I ran towards him with my first aid spray to heal him. Bill took his rifle and shot the villager's head clear off his body from a distance. Once I got near Francis, I grabbed the axe and tried to pull it from his bloody back, but it was stuck.

"Agh! Dammit!" He yelled in pain. It didn't take long to pull it out through his jacket. Once I did, much worse came into play. I couldn't move my arm with the axe in hand, for it wasn't the axe, but the thing that suddenly wrapped around my arm. It was the tongue of a Smoker! It stood all the way from a hut across the canyon and yanked me off the cliff from the others.

"Noo!" I cried when I fell off the cliff and near the endless, foggy abyss of the canyon. I was scared, I didn't know what to do. A wooden bridge in the middle of the canyon was the only thing that bent the tongue and left me hanging there. I was lucky, that didn't mean I was safe. "Guys! Guys! Help me!" I yelled more because I thought that infected bastard was planning to release me from his grip and let me fall.

"Don't worry Zoey! We're coming!" Louis healed Francis with the spray I dropped, helped him up, and rushed for me. As I tried to pull myself up from the slippery and diseased, roped tongue, I saw a number villagers heading towards us. One by one coming out of the hut with pitchforks, axes, and more dynamite. They passed over me, wanting to kill my rescuers and so went guns blazing.

At the moment, kept trying to pull myself up, not caring about the fight. All I heard there were gun fire and explosions in the background. Strange noises invaded my ears full of screams grunts and yells echoing through the canyon. The plan was failing and I wanted it all to stop. I kept loosing grip and to make matters worse, a Hunter with a devilish snare, crawled up from under the house to my left and saw me. It was well ready to launch at me and I could hardly reach for one of my guns in my pockets. With a loud yell, it launched at me at full speed. In that kind of situation, I had no choice but to lean out of it's way. It worked. I was unharmed, but as I expect, the Hunter latched it's claws on the other side of the cliff. It was about to try it again, so I desperately reached for one of my guns with my free hand. It launched through the air again then *Bam*! I shot square in between it's eyes. With no force to keep it going, it feel all the way down to the foggy abyss. I was safe and relieved, for the moment. As I looked up in the sky, oh boy, my luck wasn't working that time. On the bridge above me, stood a beast that blocked the light from my view. It was a fat pile of slob I didn't see in a long while. The Boomer. It was another Special Infected, but this one was different from the rest. It throws up slimy green goo onto it's enemies that had such a strong scent to attract other infected to make a meal of it. It was ready to release it's fluids and I was ready to fire at it, but then *Boom*! Louis fired at the slob and the thing blew up right on top of me. I wasn't covered in goo, but I did however got zombie guts all over me.

"Zoey! Grab my hand!" He said getting down on his stomach reaching his arm out. I reached for him with my gun and he pulled me up by the arm. When I got up from the bridge, the Smoker tried to pull me off the bridge, but Louis filled it's tongue full of lead and broke the hold. Seeing that it failed, it immediately snarled at us from across and used the rest of it's tongue to escape to the top of the cliffs. It was strange, but it kinda looked like the same Smoker that got away before. Aside, I was really grateful that he came to my rescue, but it took them to long to get here. As Bill came near us with a trail of bodies leading to this way, I was furious.

"What the Hell took you guys so long? I could've died down there!" I shouted. I looked what Bill was holding in his hands. Besides his rifle, was a piece of the stone tablet from the cliff. I thought of it and I was more furious, "You, you asshole! You just left me hanging here for that?"

"Zoey calm down," he said puffing his smoke, "Louis was going to rescue you. It was a good distraction on your part for the Specials. Besides, the way things are acting up something's bound to happen sooner or later."

"Dis-distraction?"

"Hey guys! Up here!" Francis yelled from the roof of the house, waving the other piece of the tablet in the air, "I got it! I got it!"

"Good, now hurry to the door ASAP," Bill ordered.

"What's the rush? These assholes are dead."

"You really don't get it do you?"

"Get what? We won, what else is gonna happen?" At the moment, I knew what Bill was talking about. Over the horizon of the canyon where we cam from, I saw something big flying in the air. It wasn't as much as flying, but soaring and falling near Francis. A giant boulder.

"Francis! Behind you!" Louis yelled at him. Francis turned his head at the sight of the boulder falling towards him. He didn't say a word, he leaped off from the roof and landed on the cliff path where we met up. *BOOM*! The boulder completely destroyed the house and it stuck there with all the broken wood and rusty metal. As he got up from the fall, a loud roar echoed through the canyon that spooked us all out. Down from a far way cliff where the Merchant resided, came another Tank jumping down the the ground.

"Something like that Francis," Bill sighed correcting Francis' words, but there was no time to talk, we had to run, "To the door people! move!" We ran for the with bot pieces in our possession. Once we reached it, I looked behind us and saw the large Tank getting ever so closer to us with it's knuckles pounding through. Francis took the liberty of putting the pieces together. Once done, he put the tablet in, but something was wrong, the door didn't budge. What happened? We had the two pieces, but that wasn't the problem at all, he just simply put it in upside down.

"God damn it Francis!" Louis shouted above the sounds of the Tank. It was getting closer. I looked behind me again and saw that the Tank was picking up the same boulder it used to destroy the house. It lifted it up and was about to throw it at us once more! I wanted Louis to hurry up. Thankfully he put it in the right position just in time for the door to be unlocked. "Alright go! Go! Go!" We rushed through the iron door and shut it closed as soon as we were all in. Louis and Francis held up the door to make sure it was shut tight since we couldn't find anything to barricade it with. A few seconds later, a loud ka-boom sound came from the door. The sound of the boulder hitting the iron door made the both of them fall to the floor. Surprisingly, the door was still intact and shut. I wouldn't have worried about the tank then, I didn't think it could get to us then.

We were then in a canyon passage with more cliffs surrounding us. It was small, but had a what looked like a storage house just in front of us. We were safe, but anger still boiled inside me with Bill. The way he looked at me, like he didn't do anything wrong, he was just having a good day with that smoke. So, I walked over, grabbed the smoke, threw and stomped it on the ground. That really got his attention.

"...what's wrong with you?" He asked.

"Me? You left me dangling over an abyss, Bill!" I said in anger, wiping some of the blood from my face "Again, I could've died, but I didn't. I'm glad, but why the Hell didn't you help Louis get over there in time? You left us all on our own! Was that part of this so called plan?"

"Hey Zoey, I think you need to calm down," Francis said, but anger still got me.

"Shut it Francis," I said wanting him to leave and he did.

"Alright," he quickly said as he went over to the old house with Louis, "And this distraction thing, was that part of the plan too?"

"Zoey," Bill said, "You should know by now that sometimes people gotta hold their own. That method helped us little in Philly, but it still got us through. I would've helped you and I know you'd do the same for me, but by that time, time would've been wasted and it's not on our side right now."

"...you're not making any sense!"

*Boom*! The sound of Francis' shotgun echoed through the storage house It was obvious there were more villagers up ahead and we had to move regardless of the mood.

"Guys c'mon!" Yelled Francis in the other house, "These villagers ain't gonna kill themselves you know!" Bill followed and left me in the pathway . I sighed a little bit, reloaded, and followed too. In the other room, I saw that Francis did kill a villager. I could tell because I saw a bloody corpse without a body on the dirty floor. I caught up with the others in a narrow room with a stone wall half way cutting the room in two. At the sight, Bill lit himself another smoke. We then found ourselves in a leaking, wreckage cave. The walls were mounted with old iron plates and there were loads of lumber leaning on the walls. At the moment, we were merely in a small room at the start of it.

"...Bill we're not done here you know," I continued.

"Just leave it be Zoey," he said, "There's more to worry about ahead, -Louis, two to your left." Louis turned to his left and saw two villagers crawling through the open crack in the stone wall. *Tat-tat-tat*! He gunned them down in split second. Once they were dead, we walked around the wall and headed towards a window that lead to the next room. Louis tried to open it up, but it wouldn't budge. Bill stepped in and smashed the window wide open with the end of his rifle. The broken window was large enough for us to get through, but something felt a little off about Bill. He seemed more, different than all of a sudden...that or lack of smoke put him on edge. Either way, something wasn't right.

By the time we got to the next room, crates across us, four more villagers were in there waiting for us with dynamites already lit for us. _"¡Te voy a hacer picadillo!"_

In a shock, we quickly took cover behind a red mine cart, all except for Bill. He stood his ground, aimed and fired at one of the dynamites in their hands. Combined with the others, it would've made a great explosion. *KA-BLAM*! It nearly took out half the room, but not entirely. Most of the stuff there were still intact. Bill walked forward and eyed more bear traps on the floor. So he shot one by one, reloaded, stepped forward, rinse repeat. He did it all the way to the other side of the room and soon it was safe for us to move forward. He kicked the next door open. He saw another villager come at him the minute he walked through the the. He took his head with one pull on the rifle.

We made it through the room, which for some odd reason was flooded with dirty water to our feet. I had to stop and clean myself from all the blood I had on my face and clothes. Thankfully they waited for me. So leaned down, got some of the dirty water and washed my face with it. It was gross, I know, it kind of smelled of sewer rather than actual water. I had no choice, I hated the stink of zombie blood on me.

"...so, that Honey-Goon lady on the radio, you think you have a thing for her Louis?" Francis tried to make some conversation while we waited, tried to lighten the mood.

"Wait, what?" Louis said.

"Oh come on, you're both pencil pushers! I saw the way you looked at her! When you saw her face, you must been like, 'Damn! good thing we're on video! Otherwise I would've tore her up from here to Phil-!'"

"Francis! Do we we really have to talk about this?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood man. Ever since we got here, all we've been doing is argue with each other every chance we get. What happened to all the 'lets be positive' crap you kept throwing back home?"

"Hate to say it, but he's right," I said slightly washing my clothes with my hands, not getting too wet, "I know we're by ourselves out here, at the moment, but we really need to lighten up. We can't be complete strangers to each other. Isn't that right, Bill?" He said nothing to us.

"So yeah, lets have a good laugh!" Francis said putting his arm around Louis' neck, "Tell us the truth Louis, would you?"

"Would I what?" Louis said being confused.

"Would you do her?"

"What? No!"

"Ok your loss. First thing when we get back, I'm going to show her a good time."

"You sure your up to it Francis?" I said with a smirk, "By the looks of that shotgun, the best you can satisfy her with is a tiny, little, shot shell! Haha!" It didn't seem that funny at first, but we there had good little laugh at the joke. But again, Bill was hardly amused, he was getting rather irritated at the time. He began to walk off and leave us in the watery room. "Hey Bill! Wait!" After I was about finished with the wash, we ran towards him right to the next room. What was wrong with him?

We followed him to the last room in this cave. It was a room that had a small water hole at the bottom of the rails and a path that lead to a ladder leading to the surface. Clearly we were underground the whole time it looked like. Bill stopped and looked down at the water full of small fish below. I bet he was wondering how fish survived in dirty water like that.

"Bill, what's your problem?" I said, "Why are you so bitter all the time?"

"What's the reason not to?" He muttered not looking at me. "You guys don't seem to realize this is no laughing matter."

"...guess the old man's right guys," Francis said getting close to him, "Guess we should all behave like good boys and girls, while he walks off without us, hide behind inside a bush, and starts jerking off to the ladies on the cigarette boxes! Hahahaha!" We had a good laugh out of that one. Bill couldn't take anymore insults from him. So near the ledge, he push Francis off the walkway and into water pit with the fishes! *Splash*!

"Ahhhh! Damn it Bill!" He yelled from below. Surprisingly, that little mischief actually made the old man put a smile on his face. Once me and Louis saw that, we laughed our guts out! "Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Ugh! Smells cow shit down here!" We laughed some more at the poor wet biker. So after a good laugh, Francis made it back up with the ladder that lead up to the walkway. With him dripping wet, he couldn't help but smile at Bill sick sense of humor, even though he hated the water. It was nice to see us all have a good laugh together. Later, we climbed out of the room and onto the surface. We found another old house, but this time we were back to the fog based forest setting. It got colder, darker, and windier like it was going to rain. Aside from that, we walked towards the house that looked bigger from the rest. It looked like a place for the big shots of the village, hopefully, not owned by the big cheese earlier.

We walked towards the big house through the path, before disabling some traps in our way of course. More bear traps and explosive wires. There were old stairs that lead up the house, so it was obvious that we were entering the back of it. Up the stairs we went silently and steadily, in case they were expecting us. We heard no sounds inside as it were deserted. Once we got up to a hallway, there was a strange door across that had a big, blue sphere in the center with a strange symbol. There were no knob or a way to push or pull the door open, so we didn't know what to do. Louis took a closer look at it and figured we had to rotate the symbol on the door in the right position. He moved it up one way, up again, and then with left slide, the door clicked! The strange door slide into the walls and we were able to go through. Francis asked how did Louis knew the right position, he simply explained it was easy. The symbol was written all over the door; another score for the smart guy.

The room we entered next was a bedroom, which surprisingly was quite fancy. It was neat, had a fine bed fit for a mayor, and well everything else was indeed organized with the sun shining through the bedroom window touching the floor. That's when it came to me, the big cheese, aka the chief I presume, that knocked us all out lived here! We had to get out of there.

"Guys we have to get out of here," I said in worry, "The big cheese lives here, I just know he does."

"It seems that way, but the picture of this man on wall says otherwise," Bill said. The picture we saw, was a face portrait of an old man wearing a purple hooded cloak, with yellow lines sliding down the cloak's edges. We thought he would live here, but I thought otherwise. A man of that stature couldn't possibly live in these parts. "By the looks of it, he must be some sort of cult leader."

"Well one thing's for sure, doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while," Louis said checking the dusty old bed. Near the picture, I eyed a key in chest on the drawer. A golden key that had the same symbol shaped on it's end as the one on the strange door. Bill looked at the key and figured it might be the key to unlock the house the villagers took to get to the church. He put it in his pocket and it should've been a smooth sailing, but then we heard something below us. We got quiet and listen closer. It sounded like chatter coming from downstairs, two villagers chattering and laughing. Sounded like they just got back from wherever they came. We had to move before something else turns up. We took out our guns, kept quiet, and opened the door to the next hallway. The voices got louder when we stepped further out. I was the last to go out to let the guys go ahead. I was about to close the door behind me, but suddenly I heard another noise besides the chatter. I stopped and heard, something breathing heavily, behind me. It was the Chief!

"Arrrghh!" With a loud yell from the tall bearded man, he grabbed by the neck and threw me against the wall! The others turned around saw him and immediately open fired on him.

*Boom*!

*Ka-pow*!

*Tat-tata-tat*!

But no matter how many bullets hit his body, he didn't die or even cried in pain, he stood bold and tough. Wasting no time at all, he charged at the boys and rammed them all into the wall across the hallway! But he wasn't done. One by one, he grabbed them by the necks and tossed them down the stirs like they were nothing to let the villagers deal with them. I figured he would leave me alone by then, but he didn't. He turned to me and speed walked towards me while I has still down. He was coming for me, but I wasn't going to be helpless. I took out my to guns and fired at his whole body.

*Bam*! *Bam*! *Bam*! *Bam*!

But he kept coming and I didn't have time to reload! It was no use. He grabbed by the neck again and chocked me to death with one hand! He lifted me up in the air kept putting pressure on the hold. I couldn't escape. I couldn't even call for help and the guys were held up downstairs by more monsters and villagers coming in the house! I forced my hands to try to release the hold,by he was too strong to be human! I thought I was done for, but something else happened. Through my eyes, I saw red, blurry veins in my sight. Thought it was blood, but it didn't fell like it, it felt like rage trying to take control of my body, something I couldn't feel before. The Chief saw it too and raised his brow in suspicion. He suddenly dropped me down to the floor and I could finally breath again. He looked me dead in the eyes and the reddish blur I saw stopped. He looked at me funny with his one good eye and spoke to me.

"Hmmmm, your..eyes...," he spoke in a raspy voice, "You carry the same blood as us it seems. Nevertheless, you and your comrades are outsiders. Just remember, if any of you become unpleasant to our eyes, you will face severe consequences." Same blood? What was he talking about. Regardless, I didn't want to listen to another word. I just wanted him dead.

I reached down to grab my gun, right before saying a phrase that made him even angrier. "Go fuck yourself!" As a result, he punched me across the room before I had the chance to stand or shoot. I lost my gun when I fell. Once I was down face up, he took his big foot and pressed it down on my chest, crushing me. I couldn't escape there either, he was just too strong for me. I look up and saw that insidious grin of his, like he couldn't wait to kill me. Just then, two bullets shoot from the window. *Bang*! Bang*! Both were planted in his back. It got his attention and turned around to see who shot him, so did I. From the window, through the shot glass, I saw I woman in a red dress hanging from a line, pointing her gun at the chief. I couldn't identify her face. I didn't know who she was or what was she doing here, I was glad she helped me. The curious chief slowly walked to the window at first, but as soon as the woman put the gun back in her holster she strapped to her revealing leg, he charged at her at full force. She quickly pulled up with her zip-line to the roof and *Boom*! The big chief crashed out of the window.

It was really strange, it escalated the number of questions I had back there. As soon as I got up, it was all quiet. No gun shoots or screams in the area, just the sounds of footsteps coming from the stairs. My team came to the room to see if I was alright. "Zoey! Are you alright?" Asked Louis breathing not as hard as I did.

"Egh, I'm fine," I said pulling myself together, "I'm fine now. What were you guys doing downstairs?"

"Do you have to ask? Villagers busted in the house, what else?" Francis said, "What happened to the Big Cheese?"

"He ran out the window, out there."

"Out the window?" All of us looked outside the window to see where he had gone, but we saw nothing. I knew somehow they were thinking of why I didn't kill him. By the way I felt, they also knew that I tried. Down to the house, we only saw the shattered glass. I even looked up to the roof to see if the woman was still there, she was gone too. Ignoring my curiousness, the guys made a point to get out of the house and back to the main village. Luckily, it wasn't that far from the window. Just one pathway away. Before we moved on, I had to say something.

"Guys wait," I said as they stopped, "Did the government someone else here besides us?"

"No," Bill said, "Why you ask?"

"Because I saw a woman outside the window. That's the reason why the big guy crashed through there."

"That's impossible," Louis said, "No one knows about the mission here besides us and that Luis guy. Anyone else here is either deranged or dead."

"No Louis," I said, "Other people know what's really going on around here, more than we think. They're probably taking advantage of the situation. In other words, we're not alone guys. We're not alone."


	5. Chapter 5: So close, yet so far

**Chapter 5: So close, yet so far**

The woman in the red dress, even without a clear face we couldn't figure out who she was. Was she a spy, local, or someone sent for backup? Either way, she was long gone and we had to keep moving. Before went down the stairs, Louis' radio went which meant it was that government lady Hunnigan again. He took it out and she appeared on screen.

"Guys, glad to see you again," she said, "It took some time, but I've been able to get you more info that might help you."

"Keyword being 'might' guys," Francis smirked.

"Be quiet," said Louis, "Fill us in Hunnigan."

"Gladly," She continued, "Apparently there's a religious cult group involved. They're called the, 'Los Illuminados'."

"Los Illuminados? That's a mouthful. Never heard of that group." Strange. None of us knew or heard of the cult. Which meant it was no help of course.

"You got anything else besides a religious cult info?" Francis questioned.

"No, sorry," she said with a frown, "That's all I could find out right now, but I could look up more later."

"Sure, maybe next she'll find a 'secret' place in the woods where we could take a good piss in."

"I'm still here you jerk!"

"Hunnigan forget about him," Bill said with a puff of smoke, "Thanks for giving us a name. Anyway, We just had another close encounter with the big cheese of this village, I'm guessing he's the chief. You got a name of him?"

"No, it was hard enough to figure out the name of the cult. I doubt I could even give you the name of the chief, let alone the village. But you guys are okay, right?"

"Wouldn't be talking if we weren't," I said, "He had me, he would've killed me too, but he didn't. What's stranger is that he mentioned something about us four, carrying the same blood. Whatever that means."

"...nah, too easy," Francis tried to make a joke of that, but decided to leave it alone.

"Carrying the same blood...interesting," Hunnigan said with concern.

"Anyway, there are more important things to worry about than some riddle," Bill said.

"Right, hurry and find the church guys."

"Hunnigan wait! We're the only four people on this mission, right?

"Of course Zoey. As far as I'm concerned, you four are the best. Now hurry and get to the church." That's not what I meant at all. She didn't say anything about another team than us, so I guessed other forces than us were in the country for a reason. We right then it didn't matter, we had to keep moving. We walked downstairs to the living to see if there was another door that lead us back to the village path. Once we were there, I looked at what looked like a pretty decent room, into a bloodbath. Villagers with their heads blown off laying on the floor, a Hunter's corpse staining the dinner table with it's wasted fluids, and a Smoker without a tongue stinking the air in a corner. No wonder the guys took so long. The strange part I thought was, before the fight, the room looked fancy in my vision like the bedroom. There were even fresh candlesticks that were burned out on the floor. They were somewhat civilized yet acted like savages. Strange.

We walked past the dead bodies and made our way through the door to the outside. We could already see the village from there. The tall tower I saw before still stood high in the village, with no one at the top to spot anyone. I hope the village would be empty, as well as the path we had to take to get back. It was a short minute away, it should've been simple, but nothing ever is wherever I go. We walked away from the house where old and soggy logs and wood where stacked against it, then made our way to the path. Then, from where I was standing, I saw a sack behind a tall wooden fence near us. A dirty and rotten sack. I didn't know why it caught my attention, just a sick feeling I guess. I looked a little closer from afar, it looked like, the sack was attached to something other than the fence because, I saw it move. I looked some more, but before I could, we heard a disturbing sound. The sound of a terrifying chainsaw starting up. I looked in front and Bill was closer to that bush! I acted fast and yelled, "Bill watch out!"

"AAAggghhh!" That yell, was a yell from a madman. through the old fence came a masked villager wielding a smoking chainsaw, the same man I saw from before when we were ambushed! It jumped after Bill with the weapon with no hope of him escaping, but Bill would be doomed like that. He took his rifle and blocked the raving chainsaw from cutting his head off. More and more the two yelled trying to best the other. Bill was getting beat and wondered something while he looked at us, why weren't we helping?

"What the Hell are you guys doing?" He yelled, "Help me!" So we did. Francis came at the masked man with his shotgun. *Boom*! He blasted the man right to the ground, saving Bill. "Geez, about damn time." Suddenly, with hardly a shock, we saw the sack masked man rise from the ground exposing the bloody face Francis gave him. He ran towards us and waved his chainsaw around like a lunatic!

"Aghh! Aghh! Aghhhhh!" He yelled some more, then he fired everything we had at him. *Bam-Boom*! *Tat-tat-tat*! *Bang bang*! We fired and fired, but he still came at us, this time for Louis. When he got close enough, he lifted that chainsaw in the air was about to cut him open like a tree. "Arggh!" Luckily, Louis got out of the way before he landed the hit. His chainsaw hit the dirt and slashed out a chunk of it, just to intimidate us. He kept our distance and fired some more rounds at the freak. Hit the legs, arms, head, I even shot his family jewels and still he came us, but he wanted Louis more. In a shred of blood, he charged at Louis with the chainsaw and Louis gave all he had to kill that sucker.

*Rata-tat-tat-tat-tat*! More and more he fired until he backed himself to a pile of logs, with nowhere else to run. He fired some more and yelled, "Die mother fucker! Die!" It was no use. The man was rushing for the final kill. Just before the man swung down on him, Louis quickly rolled out of the way and the chainsaw struck the pile of logs. The impacted caused a piece of log to pop out of place from the rest, rolling down to the chainsaw wielding man and crushed him with the dead weight. Once the logs stopped rolling, the masked man completely disappeared under the pile logs, leaving only his chainsaw running. Why a chainsaw? Pitchforks and axes were bad enough. The worse this I could see these villagers using was a gun. Hopefully, it won't be too soon.

"You all right Louis?" I said seeing him getting up from the ground.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said, "Not a scratch, but why the Hell was he using a chainsaw?"

"Why not?" Bill said seeing the man's twitching arm under the wood. He then spotted a shinny objected on the ground, something the maniac dropped no doubt, "Hm, a small ruby. Very valuable from something like this. Could be worth something to that merchant.

"Hey nice find Bill!" Louis said with a smile.

"Thanks," he said putting it in his pocket, "Anyways, they know we're using guns, so it's only a matter of time before they're smart enough to hold rifle."

"No doubt there," said Francis, he then started to eyeball the running chainsaw, still smoking the air with it's gas. He turned it off and examined the weight of it, "Damn, I could use one of these babies...think I'll hold onto it for while. Just in case."

"Then let me hold that shotgun," I said, "Just in case."

"What? No way!" He protested, "I need something to shoot too!"

"Then have these then," I tossed my two small pistols at him and quickly grabbed the big shotgun from his cold hands, "I was getting tired of these things anyway."

"Damn it Zoey! I don't want this crap! Give me back my-!"

"Hey hey!" Louis said in a loud tone, "It doesn't matter who gets what, we've wasted enough time already alright? Let's just go to that church!" Louis headed to the front of us and pressed on. That was something I expected Bill to say.

"Hm, that's something I'd expect you to say Bill," I said reloading my new gun as I followed. Bill took a poof of smoke and then smirked a little. Francis was following slow behind, trying to figure out how to work those pistols while carrying that heavy chipper. Passing another old shake, we've made it to the gate that led us back to the village. As we were about to lift the wood that locked it from the other side, I couldn't help but hear Francis' moaning from the back.

"Man this just doesn't feel right..."

The gate was unlocked and we we made it back to the village, from an other side that time. The scenery and atmosphere were the same as before, cold, foggy, and stunk as anything. We walked down the path with caution, cause we knew that even after the last assault, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that they would return there, waiting for us. I still saw the bodies of dead villagers on the ground, swarming with flies and vicious odor. That hardly kept me easy though. From the corner of that old cow shack, we saw live villagers dragging the dead ones out into the woods to God knows where. The other villagers, carried on with their usual work: racking hay and scaring away the chickens as if they didn't grieve for their fallen ones. They were practically soulless to me. Keeping quiet, we kept behind the cow shack, thinking of a strategy to catch them by surprise. All seemed good when all of a sudden-

_"iForasteros!" _A lone villager from the house behind us shouted that word at the side of us, which of course alerted the villagers. We were spotted again. Out of anger, Bill took his rifle and blew the man's head off before he could speak more. Right then the villagers grabbed their weapons and ran towards us yelling more foreign language I couldn't understand. We fired our guns and watched them drop one by one. We did it close together to not get separated, but Francis on the other hand decided to go out and use that chainsaw he had. He fired it up and waved it around the villagers which seemed to frighten them.

_"¿Tiene motosierra?"_

_"iBastardo robaron! Mató al médi-AGGHHHHH!"_

Francis took one swing of the chainsaw and cut the head of the chattering villager. Then a lady tried to get him with an axe from behind, but he quickly to the chainsaw again, stuck it to her chest and sliced all the way down to her legs! Ripping her in half! There was so much blood raining from that gory scene that Francis was literally covered in it. Strangely enough, he was enjoying himself.

"Hell yeah!" He said with a smile, "This is a weapon! It's just like playing Gears of War!" During all the commotion, Bill sighted the small house near the tower that had a red insignia on it, like the one from the chief's house. That we thought was the door to use the key with. Bill ordered everyone to follow him the the house, Louis even had to grab Francis by the shoulder to deprive him from his blood spree. We got to the small house with no slack and Bill used the key to unlock the door, it worked. It was open and we quickly rushed inside and shut the door behind us. After that, It went too quiet out there all of a sudden, as if they back off. If that was the case, there was no need to worry. We all settled down and Francis turned off the loud saw. in the house, we saw a door across the living which was our only means of progressing. I saw some ammo for Francis' guns on a shelf, so I thought of him and gave them to him. He accepted and moaned. Through the door was a small room with a dirt floor had a lit oil lamp hung from the ceiling. Near the edge of the room was a trap door that lead to a passage way underground. I was thinking it would lead to the church where the villages left to. Climbing down the steel ladder, we progressed on to the candle lit cave. Felt quiet down there too, the only sounds made where water drops hitting the floor. It was hard to believe there was actual water leaking down there. While we were walking down the stair way, I just started to notice that Bill started to act stranger. The thing was he started coughing in a disturbing tone.

"*cough*...*cough**cough*," he coughed some more letting the cigarette out of his mouth, "Eughhh..." It had me worried, because I didn't know if it was the smokes or he caught something from this weather.

"You all right Bill?" Asked Louis.

"I'm fine," he said continuing to walk, "It was just a little cough."

"...maybe you should, I don't know, give those smokes a rest?"

"Look, I said I was fine ok? Let's just go."

"Ok, jeesh." He really didn't sound fine to me. But maybe he was right, maybe it was just a little cough since he haven't coughed like that ever since we got here. Moving on, we made it to the bottom of the passage a few seconds later, more water in the middle of the room. It had enough light from a lantern hanging from the ceiling. It wasn't big, but enough to rest for a family, but we didn't need to rest, nor we were family sort of speak. I thought it was a dead end, but there was another passage way up our right. I was shocked. Not from the passage, since I didn't pay attention at first, because there was something in the middle of the water filled floor; something crying. We all knew what it was, we didn't try to deny it or go near it. It was a special infected that we didn't see in a while, the Witch. Witches were always the sad girl types, they wouldn't really come at you unless you came too close or startled them. They weep and weep with their dirty bikini wear on and covered their bright, red teary eyes with their long, bloody, red fingers sharp enough to kill a living thing with a single swipe. I never really knew why Witches cried, maybe they were the only ones of the infected that had inner feelings. we had intentions to kill her, but the best thing was to avoid her and let her weep in the water alone. We crossed the room slowly without startling her and moved on. I felt kind of bad for them, but they were infected after all, so why bother? So after that, we went around the corner of the passage to see that we almost made it out. To our surprise, we came across another room lit, with blue light emanating from two blue torches. Across the room we saw, The Merchant, again looking creepy as ever with his slouching stance.

"Welcome!" He said as we made our way over, "Glad to see you're all still alive and breathin'! Hehe."

"Hey wait, wait, wait a minute!" Louis said acting confused at the sight of him being there, "Hold on, how did you get here before us?" He made an excellent point.

"...I know my way 'round, stranjah," he said, "Lets just leave it like that eh?"

"Know your way around huh?" I said being suspicious, "So tell me exactly, what passage you took to get here unharmed?"

"Heh, funny you should ask. I've been in this country for so many years, I could walk around blind and still get 'ere. I know what no one else knows where to go."

"You mean, you could've sent us on a safer path, but instead lead us on a path where everyone and their grandma was trying to kill us?"

"Got me there. I can't lie though, there are other ways, but if I didn't lead you to the chief's house, you wouldn't have got the key to make it down 'ere then. Besides which, the paths I take aren't peaceful either. No matter where I go around 'ere now, are things I see that make strangjahs like you into suppah's special. You guys are really making noise within an afternoon, ain't ya?"

"Hey, they come at use with axes, I blow their freakin' heads off," said Francis, "It's just basic self-defense."

"Indeed," he continued, "Point is that I got ya where you are now and the church is just right behind this door beside me. Anything else would just be, improper."

"I guess...but how'd you know we needed to go to the church?" I asked.

"Ears miss. Anyways, now that we've got that stuff out of the way," he opened his coat and show us all the fire power he had for sale, "Ahem, Whaddya buyin'?"

"Well actually," Bill said pulling out the ruby from his pocket, "We were hoping you'd trade in some cash for-"

"Ah! Whaddya sellin'?"

"...a red ruby we found not long ago," he gave it to the Merchant and he observed it closely, "How much can we get for it?"

"Ahh...I'll buy it at a high price! Although, these things are worth 10,000 ptas, which will get ya only a couple of first aid spays and some stock for the guns. But I'll be happy to lend you the gold instead."

"Yo what about some ammunition?" Louis asked, "Got no more of them?"

"Sadly and regrettably, you guys took the last ones in the inventory. Others scattered across the country, which ya might already know that. Could sell 'em to you, but what's the point if you can nab 'em for free? Hehe!"

"But what about all those bullets and shells you have all stacked in your coat?" I questioned.

"Heh heh, they're fake miss. Just makes the appearance look good for show, otherwise I have just stacks of guns and empty pockets."

"Damn.."

"Well just give us the two sprays and we'll be off," Bill said. So the Merchant exchanged the first aid for the ruby and made us feel to look for some more gold to get more equipment. A little annoyed though.

"Hehehe, thank you. Come back anytime." he said closing the coat. Before we were off, he had info to tell us. We didn't bother to ask him what was up ahead since we started to get sick of talking to him. "One more thing stranjahs: don't think they'll give up what ya after so easily, they have ways of gettin' rid of stranjahs like you. Many ways." We kept that advise in mind as we opened the door and left the Merchant. In the room was an iron ladder with a glimpse of the suns rays peaking from the surface. We were certainly almost there. We climbed the ladder and made it to the surface of a new path. Once we were out we noticed the scenery was different from what I expected. The grass around us was green than dead brown, but fences made of broken wood remained the same. We could almost see the church around the corner and I felt glad to get the mission over with, but the foggier and colder climate were still getting to me. Once we passed the corner, we found it, the old church. Just on top of a small hill and a grim graveyard in front of us.

"A graveyard," Francis sighed, "Fantastic...I hate graveyards." We didn't have to guess that. From what it looked like, there were no hostels in sight, but there had to be. They might have been hiding behind the tombstones or waiting in the woods for an ambush as soon as we got closer to the church. Bill saw no trouble though, but just in case he signaled us to keep quiet and stay alert for any trouble. We took the path to the hill that lead us away from the graveyard, looking at every direction, but me being in the back feeling uneasy, I didn't think to watch my back long enough. A crazed old lady came from behind and let out a high pitched hiss like an animal craving food. When I quickly turned to face her, her hands wrapped around my neck chocked the life out of me. The strength of the hold was as strong as the chief's, but only with two hands. I wasted no time grabbing a hold of my shotgun, leaving my neck alone cause it was going to be over quick.

*Boom*! Within a second I blew her chest wide open, releasing me from the hold. There was blood on me of course, but anything at that point was better than the twist of the neck. The others were shocked that a villager was behind us, but I was worried that there would be more. I looked around and from atop of the lone tree in the graveyard crouched a Hunter, blending in with the scenery,I wasn't fooled. I yelled, "Hunter! In the tree!" And pointed them in the direction of it. By the time they looked, it launched himself right into Bill. The force of the tackle caused him to be slammed against a brick wall to the right of us. Before it could get a good clawing out of him, Louis knocked it off of Bill with his gun, leaving him exposed on the ground for Francis to finish.

"GUUAAAHhhh!" Yelled the pain of the Hunter being sawed to the face.

"Hah! How you like me now?" He laughed.

"Don't celebrate just yet," Bill said. Once the noise gave away our position, a small speck of light came right us. It hit the ground and we saw that it was a stick of dynamite! "Take cover!"

*Kaboom!* It blew a hole in the dirt as we took cover behind the tombstones. We eyed the villagers up front of the church, waving dynamites in their hands, giving us a warning to stay away. It seemed a bit, too easy. Only threw villagers stood between us and our goal. I would have suspected a bunch of them or more Special Infected. It looked too easy, but we had to take them out regardless.

"Hey Bill," Francis said beside him, "I got a plan, let Louis move closer to distract them. Once they light a fuse, blow 'em all with the rifle."

"What?" Louis heard him from another tombstone, "Hell no I ain't running up there! I'm not bait!"

"You big cry baby, could you at least go along with it?" Francis said as he stood up to mock him some more, which was such a good idea from the start. They spotted him.

_"iUn Forastero!" _Yelled and pointed a villager from the church yard. After the yell one of the villagers lit a stick of dynamite and rose it above his, ready to throw it. Before he could, Bill saw the opportune moment, aimed carefully at the explosive, and *Kaboom*! It blew away all the three into smithereens. After the explosion, I looked over tombstone and saw the brownish green smog was all that remained of them. With no one or nothing in the way, we were clear to move to the church. Moving through the remaining pathway and the open gates, the church we come to find was finally within inches of us. It's dark and spooky setting was different from a church I've seen before, what could they possibly worship in such a place like that? We walked upon the steps of the church with anticipation, but when it came to opening the doors...it was another obstacle, for it was locked shut.

"...bull freakin' horse shit," Bill said trying to push open the doors, "It's locked tight." The boys tried to force open the doors and even charging with brute force, but nothing worked. I knew it was too easy.

"Don't worry guys," said Francis firing up the chainsaw, "I'll handle this." It was clear what he was going to do with it. Seemed rather harsh to saw down church doors, but he didn't mind doing it. He pressed the running saw against the wooden doors and sparks were flying! He sawed away and away for seconds, but nothing happened. "What the fuck?" He shut off the saw and took a closer look. He knock the saw against it and heard a clang sound. Behind the wooden exterior, was pure steel behind it. We were locked out completely. "Man this can't be happening!" Wait he failed to notice was that their was a big circular indentation in the middle of the doors, Louis pointed it out.

"Guys did you even see that big circle placement in the middle?" He said, "It looks like it's missing an item or something. That's why it won't budge."

"Well duh," Francis said pretending to know the obvious, "Why the Hell you'd think I was using this chainsaw? So we don't have to use this, whatever this is."

"Great, I have to tell Hunnigan this," Louis took out the radio and tried to figure out how to contact her back. We didn't see what the use was, she was hardly any help at all. Eventually, he got it on and after a few static noise, she appeared on screen. She was probably wondering if we had the girl yet, wish we could say those words. "Hunnigan, it's Louis. We've found the church but the doors are locked and we can't get in."

"Well didn't anybody teach Bill how to pick locks in the army?" She said being smart.

"Heh, very funny," he said taking a big puff of smoke, unfortunately he didn't learn how to pick locks and neither did we. "There's some sort of indication like something might- *Bang*! *Bang*! Ahh, damn it Francis don't shoot up the place!" Francis thought the windows outside the church were breakable, so he figured to shoot the windows with a pistol and see what happens. Evidently, the windows were as tough as the doors as well."

"Well crap!" He said, "We can't get though the windows either!" As ridiculous as it sounded, he was right, they set up the church so sure it was no wonder they kept the girl inside.

"Hunnigan," Bill continued, "It looks like the place is as hard as a rock and the only was inside is that we find a missing tablet in the door."

"like a key?" She asked.

"You can say that, just something that'll complete the hole and open the door. We were so close too."

"It's not too late Bill, find the missing piece or whatever and get inside that church." Then the radio turned off.

"Guess we're on another treasure hunt huh?" Louis said.

"Seems that way," said Bill, we thought of scouring the area to find the piece, but Bill saw different. They wouldn't just leave the key to the church doors in the bushes or behind the walls or anything, no. They kept it secure in someplace we had to cross the country for. He walked around and eyed the pathway ahead to the cliffs with the sound of the ocean below splashing against them. "My instinct tells me that we have to go across the cliffs and see what we could find."

"Are you serious man?" Louis said like he was crazy, "That tablet could be anywhere, it may be still around here."

"But like the Merchant said, these villagers aren't that dumb. So that's why I think we need to move and save time."

"Fantastic," mocked Francis, "First we take advice from a dirty old merchant and now we're following a dirty old man's instinct. Boy we're really making progress."

"...and I'm about to lose my damn temper! So you better trust me on this or you're going to be in charge of guarding your own ass here at the church. let's move you two." Harsh, harsher than usual. He moved out in a fuss and we followed our "Leader" down the path. Francis however couldn't stand to be alone, he hated being alone.

"H-hey come on! Lighten up!" He said following the rest of us. As we walked down the hill side on the left of the church, we came across a hung, wooden pathway against the cliffs, suspended from the ocean below with rope. It looked rickety and unsafe, but it was the only way to get to the other cliffside. Stepping on it, it felt really sturdy in fact and was as good as a bridge. We walked across the wooden structure and had to jump a gap or too because of the poor design. I wondered about why they built this if they could just make a path on the ground rather than build on in the air like that. Even a small abandoned hut was built along the cliffs. I still couldn't understand those villagers. As we walked and felt a slight breeze from the air, I could just tell it was going to be a long trip to get that missing piece. Seconds later we made it to the other side of the cliff and opened the door of a fort wall ahead without any trouble; so far so good. Inside the fort was a wide open space full of mist, crows, and human bones on the grounds. The birds gathered in a pile and pecked at the remaining specks of meat of whatever was brought in there. Other than that we saw three small huts, more stacks of wood, and a huge door in a far corner. It was big for anything I've ever seen. We didn't know what was in there and by the look of our own faces, we didn't want to find out. That wasn't where we needed to go. We headed towards the door ahead of while the birds flew away by the sight of us and crowed while doing so. We then opened the door out of the fort, practically ignoring the stairs that lead down a door on our right, because Bill thought there would be nothing down there. We pressed on. Closing the door behind us, we were then on another downward path lined with cliff hills to the left and right. It was all too quiet.

"Hey guys," said Louis, "You think it's weird nothing attacked us this far?"

"Maybe we killed the last ones back there," Francis answered. It did seem rather calm, maybe they were off somewhere else guarding the countries form others and not bothering us. I wish I could say that, but they were too set on guarding any path anyway in the country rather than out. The sound of huge footsteps from the cliffs proved me right of my suspicion.

"RRRRAAGHhhhh!" A muscle bound Tank form above roared it's lungs out as an alarm to alert the others. It wasn't enough though. When we were about to open fire, it rushed towards a huge boulder beside it and picked it up to make a special delivery from above. It launched down the path where we were and it rolled towards us like the one before! We ran and ran down the hill huffing our breaths out. Running until the boulder a wall down the way like last time. As we ran, Francis was behind us all because of the heavy chainsaw he carried.

"Francis drop the saw!" I yelled, but he didn't listen.

"I ain't losin' this thing!" He yelled back.

"It's dead weight!" Yelled Louis.

"No!" He yelled back, it was no use. We were coming up near an angle wall down the path and figured it was our best chance to make that boulder crash. We ran faster and eventually made it past the wall, but Francis was still behind. The boulder was catching up to fast for him. We thought he was going to be a goner for sure! When he was about to come up on the wall with the boulder inches away, he jumped out of the way towards us and *Boom*! The giant boulder collapsed into the wall as soon as he hit the ground! It was like something people see in action movies where the hero jumps from an explosion, only it was a breakable boulder and he was clearly not a hero.

"Phew! I made it!" He said catching as he rose from the ground with his chainsaw, "Huhh, phew, did I ever mention I hate boulders?"

"Hmph, how could we tell?" Louis said with a smile.

"Don't rest just yet," Bill said fully loading his rifle, "We still got more runnin' to do!" The Tank from the cliff jumped down and his way to us with the sounds of knuckles stumping the ground. To make matters worse, more villagers down the path with pitch forks and axes came and yelled at us with more language I couldn't understand.

_"¡Hey, acá!"_ Yelled one.

_"iConseguirlos! Conseguirlos!"_ Yelled another.

_"iVamos rip aparte!"_ And one running up close. We were hoping Bill would had a plan for this and he did. He ordered me and Francis to take care of the villagers to clear a path, while he Louis did their best to take down the Tank. We ran down the hill shooting everything in our way. Down the way we came across a swamp-like setting. A wooden bridge above a shallow, foggy swamp, both containing more villagers and traps that blocked our way. The villagers we shot and sawed so far were dealt with, but the Tank wasn't giving Bill and Louis slack, so all of us kept running. I was so close to the swamp I had no choice but to take the water side while Francis bothered with the villagers on the bridge. We weren't safe on either side. I saw another string triggered explosive in the way and another out front. Up ahead a villager was trying to chase after me, but he didn't realize the trap that was in front of him and blew himself to pieces by running into it. It gave me an idea on the Tank. When I looked behind to see what was happening, the Tank wasn't going down at all, the bullets just fed it's rage. With one swift punch, he knocked Bill all the way to the swamp! He landed on the opposite end of my standing so I didn't have time to see if he was ok. I had to get rid of this thing. With Louis still out in front, I had to signal him to follower me.

"Louis! Lead the Tank over here!" I yelled as he came in my direction, "Keep your head down, there an explosive trap here!"

"A what!" He said still shooting.

"Just keep your head down and move!" We quickly moved further to the swap. On my mark both of us ducked the trap wire and lured the Tank in further to his doom. It kept charging at us until eventually he met the the wire.

*Kaboom*! The big freak exploded into pieces leaving nothing but his over sized arms floating in the waters. We were both glad it was over quickly, but there was still the matter of Francis and Bill. I looked above at the bridge and saw the Francis cleared the way of villagers with his trusty saw with no problem. As for Bill, I couldn't see him over the wood holding the bridge up. I walked up the nearest steps to the bridge to get a better view, but as soon as I reached, a villager was inches away from decapitating me with his hand axe!

*Bang*! His head suddenly exploded off his shoulders and fell on the wooden floor! Looking at the way he was struck I knew where that shot came from. To the lake I saw Bill wave his hand and lowering the rifle, letting us know he was ok.

"Bill! You're alright!" I said with a smile.

"Of course I'm alright," He said making his way out of the swap and onto the bridge. He was soak and wet like Louis and I and he limped a bit from the impact. He eventually walked it off, "Eugh, it'll take a lot more than a sucker punch to bring me down." He lit himself a somewhat dry cigarette and puffed himself a big one. "Now, let's go before more of 'em show up." We crossed the bridge and made it past the swamp. Passing another hut and a wooden gate to the next area, I couldn't help but feel to change my clothes. I had to change, the stink of blood and swamp water wad getting to me. I couldn't though, these were the only clothes I had brought, the ones I already had on. The best I could was stop and squeeze away all the water on them. It made Francis chuckle.

"Hey don't be embarrassed," he said to me, "We all look and smell like shit."

"Well if you like being soak and wet, that's just you guys," I said, "I can't stand it. It's cold enough as it is."

"I hate the cold too, but you don't see me hair dryin' my pants." His jokes were getting to me too. We walked forward and came across a fork in the path. It was a good place to relax there in my opinion. We walked so far I was starting to feel tired. The guys thought so to. So in the middle of the path we sat to catch a breather; feeling hungry and thirsty. We sat for a few minutes to relax; Francis told jokes, Louis tried not to laugh at them so much, and Bill was too busy having more smokes. I on the other hand felt too paranoid to just sit in the open. I went to explore to the left of the path which lead to the top of a hill side. From there, I saw a huge lake that was bigger than the village itself. I couldn't say it was beautiful or anything, like the swamp it was filthy, foggy, but only had chunks of tree logs floating in it. I even saw a small dock across the lake that looked like our next destination. Just when I was about to think there was a boat, I saw a loan goose fly out of nowhere and planted itself near the water. The moment it stood still trying to gather some morsels...I heard a small rumble. The lake shook and waves began to ripple enough to scare the goose away, like it had a sense of danger. As it flew out of sight, a large, monstrous creature that I couldn't describe nearly made it to to surface to eat the goose. It was even bigger than a house. Once the goose was gone, it disappeared back to the watery depths below, nowhere to be seen again. After I got a mere look of it, my face turned still...and I gulped in fear.


	6. Chapter 6: From the Lake

**Chapter 6: From the Lake**

I didn't think there was anything bigger, until I saw that shallow image of a beast from the lake. A beast of something imagine to describe. I sunk my teeth into my lips, hoping that we wouldn't cross the damnable lake. I kept wondering we gotten ourselves into, what was this place, and why we had to risk our lives in it. Still shaking from the cold, I returned to the group that was suppose to be in the middle of the fork path waiting for me, but instead continued without me. I saw them take the right path from where we started, furthering near the lake; I sprinted to catch up to them only with a touch anger that they left me like that.

"Couldn't you guys at least wait for me?" I said holding my ams for warmth, I managed to stop them for a sec.

"Ask Captain Commando over here," Francis said seeing that I was still wet and not dry, "He wasn't gonna wait. He'd thought you'd be dried off by now."

"Well I wasn't. What made you leave Bill?"

"Don't know," he said with a strange look in his eyes, "Heard a noise a minute ago, better to keep moving then stay any longer."

"What noise?"

"Sounded like a plane passing by to me," Louis answered, "Just white noise, but ever since we got here I've been hearing a lot of that." We've always heard noise hear and then, but he was right. Just the natural atmosphere of this land, a land that scared the whiz out of me every time I heard something. That got Francis wondering.

"Hey," he said with a smirk, "How much you wanna bet Bill thought it was a bomber plane ready to drop a load on us?"

"Just keep talking Francis," Bill muttered moving down the path, "Just keep on talking." Further and further we walked down the path only to see two old shacks near the end. Once we walked closer to the shacks to see if there were anymore land to cover, thing is there was but it's wasn't more land, it was water, along with a motor. It was as I feared, the path ended on a rickety dock built on the lake with one wooden, motorboat that looked half sunk with only rope, spears and a tied hook-like anchor left in it. To Bill, we were on the right track to find what we could to get in the church and crossing the lake was the only way across. I was too nervous to tell them about the creature I saw in the lake. With a story like that they wouldn't believe me anyway. What else could I do but listen what Bill had planned. It was a simple one, get in the boat and cross the lake. Simple enough, but how would we all fit in that old motorboat? Louis took a closer look at it and could tell the boat wouldn't hold us. There were leaks in the wood and it wasn't wide enough. He suggested to just, walk around the lake through the hills to get to the other side. Bill didn't listen, if we took took ground, more villagers easily see us and track us down and through the lake was the fastest way to go. He even believed we could all fit in the boat, all we, or should I say, Francis had to do was get rid of that heavy chainsaw he carried. He wouldn't give it up, he was becoming too attached to that thing, if I didn't know better I'd say he actually liked it. But because of it's heavy weight and not being able to shoot and use it at the same time, he decided to hate it too.

So he bid farewell to it and tossed it aside like a used tissue. Now that was done, they were ready to get in the boat. Bill first, then Louis, Francis, and last me. Surprisingly, we didn't sink, but I could feel the water from the boat as I sat in the back. We where ready to go and since I was in the back, I needed to operate the motor, but I was too nervous to go in the lake, I had to tell them. "Listen we can't go through the lake." They were shocked I waited that long to say something.

"What are you talking about Zoey?" Asked Louis.

"I-I saw a monster down in the lake, we can't go through here." I acted way too scared back then, but if someone saw the size of that thing, they wouldn't blame me.

"Aww, wittle Zo's afwwaid," Francis mocked at me.

"Francis you ass! I'm not messing around here! There was something down there that was like, five times bigger than a Tank! You have to believe me!" Of course, no one believed me. Bill had a feeling it could be true, but he saw a way to act towards it a different way.

"Zoey, if there is a creature down there, it won't do us harm unless we do, like any other animal." Bill acted like it was no big deal, but it was huge! I started to protest but Bill was too stubborn to listen to me, so I pouted and scorned to end the argument.

"Fine, fine," I said, readying up the motor, "But if we get trapped in it's stomach, don't blame me."

"Right, just start up the thing and steer the boat Zoey," Bill ordered. I pulled the string and got the loud motor running and steered the boat for that old goat. So there we went, out into the foggy lake where not even the smell of vapor was clean to keep my senses up. Nothing there was clean, there were even chunks of degraded wood bundled up in sections of the lake. It was hard to believe anything could survive there, but fish did inhabit the lake. As we reached the middle of the lake, I tried to keep my cool hoping that as long as we stayed calm nothing would happen. Though it would've been a peaceful ride if only the motor hadn't made that buzzing sound like a chainsaw. I wished it would've stopped, but because of our damn luck, the motor was slowing down. It kept popping for a few seconds then suddenly, it completely stopped. Why oh why did it had to stop? Why? The guys looked at me like I was responsible, but I told them it was the motor. The thing was so old that the villagers didn't gas in it for who knows how long. I tried to figure out why it wouldn't start again, until suddenly, I heard a silent sound and felt a small wave at the boat. It knew we were there and we were trapped. I panicked. I pulled the string constantly and after it didn't work I tried pounding the thing and it still refused to work.

"No no no, this not good," I said, "We need to get out of here!"

"Calm down Zoey," Louis said suggesting an idea, "We can just row to show no problem."

"No way man, I hate rowing. It makes me build up one hell of an appetite," Francis moaned. They didn't know how serious this was.

"You guys don't understand!" I said talking through my teeth trying not to raise my voice, "There is a giant monster down there and if we don't get out of here it will kill us. Didn't yo feel that wave a few seconds ago?" Francis wasn't at all turned.

"Please, it was just a wave," He stood up in the boat showed no fear, "Seriously, any idiot can tell the difference in a wave motion, between the wind and sea monster!" He had no idea until he found out.

*SWWooom*! A huge current from below shocked the boat and caused us to yell in shock and Francis to fall on his back! Then all of them realized I wasn't messing around. When we turned to Francis, he had a dead look in his eyes and shook a little in his boots. He got up a claimed, "...and that is clearly a sea monster! Get us the Hell out of here!" He moved me aside and tried to start up the motor, but I told him it wouldn't start.

"It won't start you moron! We're stuck!" I said back.

"Shit, I hate boats!" One more big wave swayed the boat in a calmer manner. We looked in all directions at the water and saw no image of the monster, just the smugness of it all. Everything went silent and so did we. Too silent. I slowly looked over at the water again and for a quick second, saw the quick rushing image of a figure rising to the surface. It saw us.

*RAAAUUGHHHH*! The monster of the lake rose to the surface and let out a huge roar out a huge roar through it's tentacle infest mouth and splashed down to the deep. The splash it made threw all of us back as we tried to figure out what that thing was! It was a quick look but how I described it looked a lot different from any other sea creature I've seen. Thing was, it wasn't at all. It's pale, grayish, and rotting skin was undefinable and it had no eyes, but had little feet and a long tail. I did some research later in months to find out it was actually Amphibian. More specific, it was an over grown salamander that looked infected by whatever possessed it to grow tentacles in it's throat. The size of that thing was so huge, it could devour us all in one big bite. I didn't want to question it back then, because I was too busy figuring out how to escape it.

"I told you there was a monster here!" I yelled at the guys, "But you didn't- urp!" Before I could say more, the boat start to move and we didn't know why. It was going faster than usual. "W-what's happening to the boat?"

"That thing got the anchor stuck to it's body!" Bill yelled trying to get up, "It's taking us for a ride! Everyone, get to your stations!"

"Stations? We are in a small, fucking boat genius!" Francis yelled trying not to fall off the speeding boat. Fortunately the creature didn't drag us under with it. The rope attached to the hook was long enough for it to dive up and back to try and get another chomp at us. I hoped Bill had a plan for this one.

"God help us," Bill muttered as he saw the creature swimming on the surface, carrying us around lake in many directions, "Ok listen up! Zoey, you steer the boat so we won't run into any of the wood floating around." Then he took one of the sharp spears next to him and stood up to aim at the monster like Captain Ahab. "I'll take care of this oversized lizard. You two stay in the boat."

"Forget you man, I ain't sitting around doing crap!" Louis got out his little TMP and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the speeding creature. Every bullet that pierced the creature's body sent it's blood spurring out of it's diseased skin and sure enough gave the lake some red color. He didn't kill it but only annoyed it. Rushing near a corner of the lake, the beast dived down water, turned around, and faced us head on. When it got close enough it open it's wide, monstrous mouth to swallow us whole! Bill finally launched the spear direct at the creatures mouth, causing it to splash back down and bleed more. It drew us to fall on our backs by the amount of water it splashed. After collecting ourselves, we realized the boat was no longer hooked to the creature after that splash. Bill got back up and grabbed another spear as he gave out a mean look to Louis.

"I told you to stay put Louis!" Bill yelled.

"Well excuse for helping!" He yelled back, "I told ya I wasn't gonna sit and nothi- Ahh!" The creature rose to the surface again only to hit the boat below, launching us further into the lake! The force it gave wasn't strong enough to destroy the boat, unbelievable as it seemed, but managed it to flip us over into the water! Some of our weapons were lost in the water, but we didn't time to fetch them. We acted fast and flipped the boat over the rush back in. Once we were in, I observed and saw that I lost my shotgun, Louis even lost his gun, but Bill managed to keep his rifle strapped and saved a few spears. Though I couldn't help but notice that something was missing, Francis.

"Francis? Oh no we lost Francis!" I panicked. I looked out in the lake and called out for him, "Francis! Where are you? Francis!" Then I heard a splashing noise behind us. From a small distance we saw Francis kicking and splashing around, trying to stay a float. "Francis! Get back here now!" The thing was, he couldn't get back to us.

"Th-there's a reason I hate the water ok?" He yelled at us, "I can't swim!" At that moment we heard a small roaring sound of the creature from below. We had to do something or else he was done for. Bill acted fast and started to row the boat to Francis with his bare hands and ordered us to join in too. We splashed away trying to rescue Francis from certain doom. Closer and closer we got, but we weren't fast enough, Bill ordered us to go faster! Then the roar of the creature grew louder. It rose to the surface once again, but this time was closing in on Francis. What were we going to do? Bill told us to keep rowing and grabbed himself a spear. He aimed at the monster, launched one at great feet, and punctured on at it's flat head. It was still coming. He got another and struck another one at the head making it bleed more, but it just wouldn't stop! It was moving in on Francis as he desperately cried for help! The monster opened it's mouth and was ready to swallow him whole, that when Bill grabbed another spear and threw it directly into it's throat! Once it was gave out a lot blood in pain, it dived right back down the lake. Finally, we got to Francis and pulled him into the boat safe and sound. We were glad for his safety.

"Phew, thanks guys," he said after coughing out some dirty water, "Ughh...another second and I would've been the appetizer!"

"Don't thank us just yet," Bill grabbed the last spear in the boat and scanned the area, "...it's still out there."

"Well what are we gonna do? All I have is this one pistol now." He got it out and pounded it free of any water, then he saw only Bill had a gun. Things really didn't look good at all. But Louis didn't accept this fate, he struck an idea.

"Hey guys listen! I got something!" He said, "The creature reacted to real pain when it was hit in the mouth, that's weak point. The mouth! We just have to shoot it there and it's done!"

"Good thinkin'," Bill claimed, "Now which one of you can aim a rifle straight?"

"Well, I could," Louis suggested. Then Bill took his rifle of his back and handed it to Louis.

"Good. I got the spear. Francis, give Zoey the pistol and you use all of whatever is left in it Zoey."

"Got it," I looked in the gun and saw I only had ten rounds left, I was sure to use them wisely. So us three stood up in the boat and looked around the silent lake for the monster to reappear, while Francis hopped we wouldn't fail. Cheers to us if we did.

*RAAAUUGHHHH*! The monster rose to the surface yet again from the other side the lake, bashing away the chunks of wood in it's way, charging to get it's final pick at us. Increasing it's speed, it opened it's mouth once again, this time I was such it wouldn't close until we were in it's belly. It felt like I was in the movie "Jaws", only I had a team left to fight with. Of course I couldn't help but say the famous line the guy said right before he killed the shark rushing towards him. The creature was in our sights and we readied our guns and I uttered the words appropriate for the occasion. "Smile you son of a bitch!"

*Ka-pow*! *Ka-pow*!

*Bam*! *Bam*! *Bam*! And with one more shot of the spear, the beast couldn't take anymore. All the blood pouring out of it's mouth was overwhelming for anyone! It thrashed around the water and out in pain as it dove back in the water just as it passed the boat. I couldn't believe it, we killed it! And all of us survived none the less! We smiled at each other over our outstanding victory, but it wasn't over just yet. The creature did start to sink in the lake and the speed from the momentum it gave out made sink faster. The thing was, we didn't pull up the anchor. The creature somehow got the hook caught in it again and the weight and speed of it was too much that it broke the handle that held the rope of the anchor in place. What made it so bad was that, the rest of the remaining rope inside the boat, caught my leg. Before I knew it, I was pulled right into the lake!

"Ahhhh!" I screamed and yelled as the creature pulled me down to the lake with it! I couldn't hold on to the boat or untie the rope clutching to my ankle, I was stuck...I was sinking. They guys yelled my name and tried to save me by diving into the lake. The blood the creature gave out and the amount of smog below was to hard to tell if they were still trying to save me. Deeper I sunk and deeper I still went, it was certain that I wasn't going to make it. I lost my breath! At that moment everything turned black and I lost control of body and mind.

Was I dead? It really looked that way. I didn't even get the chance to see my whole life before my eyes, it was probably the smog blocking my visions. It was a strange experience. I felt nothing, lifeless was a better word to put it. Light as a feather too. All I could see was darkness, like a huge abyss of nothingness and I was just floating through it. Eventually, I did feel something. Not the feel of relief, but the feeling of pain instead. Something crawling inside my chest. It felt like there was something was tearing through my whole body, like I was going to explode from the inside! I couldn't take! I wanted it to stop! Suddenly...I opened my eyes. Yes. In a split second I awaken from what felt like a dream, a dream that felt all too real. What was stranger was that I awoke on a dirty bed. I didn't know what was going on. My head felt like mush and my body was a mixture of pain and shivers, but what did know was that I was alone in a very small house. It was fairly dark in the room even through the windows, so I could assume it was nighttime. What better way to wake up but at night huh? I checked myself to see if anything was a miss and I was fine. Clothes already on, my pistol on the table and an, anonymous letter on my lap? What was it and why was it there? It had no name of whom it was from or to say it had my name on it. It was on my lap so I assumed it was for me. I sat up on the bed and opened the letter. Even though it was dark, I tried my best to make it out. It read: "There's an important item hidden in the falls. If you get it you might be able to get Ashley out of the church. But I'll warn you, the route to the church isn't a walk in the park by any means. They've deployed what's called an_ 'El Gigante'_, so God bless. P.S. About what's been happening in your body, as well as your team's...if I could help you all, I would. But unfortunately it's beyond my power."

So many questioned needed to be answered, but not if you're alone with no one to help say otherwise. It was too much. Falls? A Gigante'? It didn't know who this person was. That Luis guy or the girl in the red dress. Either way, they gave info on where to go. That missing item on the door of the church was in some falls around here, and I had to get, now. I stuck the letter in my pocket where the pic of Ashley was still placed. I got out of the bed and stretched a little, but one thing still puzzled me at the moment...where was my team?

They left me, again. But then again they saved me. I had to be grateful, but why they leave me all alone in the night, I don't know. So I grabbed my pistol off the table and rushed out the door, only to find with was also storming outside. Perfect. I expected that when I saw the clouds earlier. The lighting lit all the areas around me, the wind kept blowing the rushing rain in my face, and to top it off, I didn't where I was at! I looked behind the building and saw the lake from before, so we must've made it to the other side. Near the lake I saw a sign that read: "Waterfalls" In plane english with the arrow pointing away from the lake. The path forward was the only path I could take that still lit with flame torches. As long as they were lightning the way, I was fine. I walked through the path and kept my awareness high for any certain danger. The dark never really scared me, because it was just no sun in the sky. I had to remember to not be scared of the dark, it's the things that lurk in it that kills you. Up the lit path I came to gate door that had the same insignia we've been seeing around this land. I pushed open the door and moved forward. It led me to a wide trenched path were I could hear the rush of water more than the storm. Looking up at the trees' silhouettes on the hills gave me too much of a reason to get scared of the dark more. Anything I could see I would trick me me into thing it was something else. As I walked along cautiously, I saw a familiar figure laying on the ground near a touch. The clear white t-shirt it wore, resembled Louis. It was him! He laid motionless on the ground flat on his stomach carrying no means of protection at all. I ran towards him hoping he wasn't dead, until an eerie hiss came out of nowhere. I looked forward at the dark path ahead and saw something coming slowly coming towards us. All I could see was it's shadowy figure creeping up on us with it's glowing red eyes. Lighting from the storm lit the area again, it it was revealed that the figure was one of the villages. I aimed my gun at the eyes and was ready to shoot, but what I saw the man do next was absolutely inconceivable. After his presence finally came clear to my eyes, the strange old man twitched his own head back and forth, left to right, and all around like he was having a mental breakdown. More and more he twitched, until finally showed the reason of his struggle. Blood burst out of his neck, tentacles chopped away thew the head, and with all the might his head completely exploded! The only thing or things reaming on his shoulders were root like substances of meat with eyeballs along with long, pink tentacles whipping and splashing blood everywhere. It was not a pretty sight. It couldn't speak words, it just walked after me.

I aimed my gun again, only with unspeakable fear. Once it got close enough, I blasted a few rounds to it's head as it still reacted with pain. A couple more hits and *Boom*! It's entire head exploded with a another hiss finishing the abomination. The rest of the body fell on the ground and laid dead, just the way I like it. With it done, I went to Louis to see if he was still alive. I got down on my knees to the moist ground and shook his body.

"Louis? Louis!" I said to him. I turned him on his back to look at his. Fortunately he was fine. He breathed, he was still alive! But he had his eyes closed, I couldn't tell if he was unconscious or napping. The spot wasn't a good place to be for either one. I gave him a few pats on the cheeks to make him wake up. The more I did the more harder I wanted just to slap him awake. "Louis! Come on! Wake up!"

"...ug-huh? W-what's happenin'?" He muttered finally waking up. I was so close to slapping him too, "Zoey? Is that you?" He felt woozy. I helped him up to his feet tried to get his senses together.

"Yeah it's me," I said, "And we need to keep moving. It's night fall."

"Night? Damn...what happened anyway?"

"I should be asking you the same question. Last thing I remember doing was being drowned to death."

"Oh yeah that, I dived in to rescue you. I didn't have time to cut the rope, so I did what I could to untie you."

"Wait, you're the one that saved me?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"No it's not. It's just...never mind. Why'd you leave me in that house alone and where are Bill and Francis?" Louis built up a concerned face.

"*Sigh* When we brought you to the house, we thought you died for real. You wouldn't wake up or anything. Bill wanted to leave you but I couldn't just leave you there. So later on he left with Francis to scout the area or somthin' other and I was left to bring you back up to health. An hour later, I figured the assholes left us both, they even gave me the one pistol to protect you with. Then all of a sudden, I felt a huge pain in my chest, like something was-"

"Was scrumming around in it?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I felt it in my sleep too, I don't know what's going on."

"I know. I was in so much pain I tried to call out for Bill outside. I round up here and fell unconscious...This is getting weird." To make things even weirder, his radio turned on again in his pocket. I hoped Hunningan could shed some light of what's going on. Louis took out the radio and responded. "Louis here."

"Louis. It's been six hours since our last transmission," she said. six hours, were we really knocked out that long? "I was starting to get worried."

"Worried? You started to get worried?" Louis said in an outraged tone, "We're over here getting chased by maniacs and monsters and you starting to get worried? Zoey almost died, we don't know where to go, and now we can't find Bill or Francis! You started to get worried...bullshit."

"Hey calm down Louis!" She said, "If I was there I would completely understand but over here, there's not much I could help you with but give you support."

"Then give us air support damn it!"

It's not that simple ok? Calm down and tell me what happened there." "He squeezed his eyebrows together and tried to stay calm for a time.

"Look all we know that after a while we lost conciseness and kinda, blacked out for some hours."

"Lost consciousness? Maybe it has some connection to what the village chief was talking about?"

"Maybe, just maybe...Look, unless you have any 'useful support', we have to find the rest of our team. So do you have any?"

"No, not at the moment sorry. Just wanted to check in."

"Well check in next time when it actually matters, Louis out." He shoved the radio back into his pocket and I was surprised the way he acted. He acted as grouchy as Bill all of a sudden. "...hm."

"...are you ok Louis?" I said getting closer to him, but he turned away.

"Why did I even end up here with, you guys...I just can't understand it..." So many things could've been going through his mind back then. I had the same feeling to of why I was in this mess in the first place. I guess it all started when me and the boys had no choice but to stick together in harsh time. It had me realizing that I didn't thank him from rescuing me from the lake.

"Louis...I'm sorry that I didn't, thank you for rescuing me back there. It's just that-"

"I know. You don't know me enough to really appreciate the help right? Tell me something I don't know.

"And you don't know me Louis and frankly I don't care if either of us do. I appreciate it! We're not friends or family, but still you guys are the only ones I can really trust right now ok? I'd rather have you guys than anyone else. Thank you for saving my life Louis..."

"...hmph, anytime Zoey," he smirked, "Anytime." I never really got to appreciate the boys because we make an unlikely team. But in this messed up world, we had to stick with each other either if we liked it or not. Right now we had to find the other two. Just then, Louis told me a thought, if both of us lost consciousness at some point, Bill and Francis might as well too. I even told him that I had a theory of what was really wrong with the villagers and this whole land. I don't know what but some, parasitic virus was infecting not only the humans but animals as well and it was a good chance we could fall victim too. We felt fine now inside and it was just a theory of mine of course. I saw it in the lake creature and then in a villager. The whole land could've been took over by these things. One thing was for sure though, we wanted to find the stupid girl and get the hell out of here fast.

We passed many points along the way to whatever the path led. It led us to a small dam up ahed that for some reason closed the rest of the water from rushing though. Hoped across the gaps of the dam and finally reached the edge of the water fall ahead. With the dam closed, it wasn't much of a waterfall, just shallow water split from it's direct course. Below the fall we saw a small dock with operating waterwheels along the river. Our guess that was the next place to go, but how to get down was a problem. I then spotted a hanging rope from the other side of the fall that lead down to the dock. So we went over to try and slide down safely. Louis thought it would be safer for me if he went first and watch my step when I would come down, but I could take of myself. It was kind of nice though. I went first any. I climbed down the rope and then Louis followed. Once we were down, we looked around area wondered were to go from there. I mentioned to him about a mysterious note saying the thing we were searching for was in the falls. The water we just seen rushing down on the other side of the dock already revealed a clear passage for us to enter. Easy enough to spot. Once we made our way around the dock, the bodies of dead villagers, strangely enough, where scattered all over the path that led to opened passage. I wondered what could've happened to these guys. Not that I was worried about them, I wondered who already been there. I looked closer and found bullet holes lunged in their bodies. It was safe to say that Bill and Francis made it past the area and where still alive! I continued to look on the ground and eventually found what looked like a golden ring with a ruby at the tip. Louis said it was just an Amber Ring, a very valuable ring. We didn't know what it was doing on the ground, so I decided to keep it just in case we ran into that merchant again to earn some money.

We then moved into the fall's entrance that looked like a secret tunnel. It was perfect for anything to be stashed away in there. Through the dark tunnel, we came across a candle lit room. We figured the item we were searching for was in there, but after looking around, we did not. It was gone. All we found that was significant was a clear path ahead. The guys must've got to it before we did. It was amazing, they got the thing and didn't bother to come back for us. Knowing Bill, his only motive at the time was to push forward...so we had no choice but to do the same. Through the remaining path, we stumbled across a river cavern at the end with a motorboat docked for us. I was strange because I never seen a river cave inside a waterfall before. That or I didn't really get out that much. Quickly, we hitched a ride on the boat through the cave, until later we found a docking point for the boat along the way. We stopped and got off there. Once there, I couldn't help but notice a long touch pole in the river glowing blue flame. Then we saw a small shop structure up the cave's path. It was, of course, the Merchant's place. He actually set up a shop in a cave. Walking along the steps we found him at his post beside a corner; with a smirking look and racks full of guns, he rubbed his hands and greeted us with a welcome.

"Welcome!" He said echoing through the cave, "Got quit a selection of good things on sale, stranjahs." He had everything we could image on the shelves. Guns, herbs, first aids, suitcases, maps, and some ammo if they weren't fake. I wondered, where he'd get all that stuff?

"Merchant? You have your own shop and everything?" Louis said looking surprised.

"Heh heh, fella's gotta make a livin' one way or the other. I'm surprised you guys made it this far."

"Surprised?"

"Yeah, any stranjah who ever went through the lake, nevah really lives to tell the tale. Hehe heh. Del Lago what they call the beast."

"Wait you knew that thing was in the lake? Why didn't you tell us that before?"

"What? You actually went through the lake? I'd would've thought you'd be smart enough to walk around it. No offense."

"Yeah whatever. Did you happen to see the two guys that was with us pass through here?" I asked him.

"Can't saw I didn't," he answered, "Looked awful lot in a hurry they did. I offered them goods, but unfortunately had no money. Supply and demand is essential you know." That's when I thought to offer him the ring to see if he would be able to provide some guns.

"I found this amber ring," I said showing him the shining ring, "Is this good?"

"Ahh...I'll buy it at a high price!" He said looking mesmerized, "10,000 ptas I'll pay!"

"What? That's what you said the time we gave you a ruby! Now you want that much for this ring?"

"Supply and demand Miss. Supply and demand. I call 'em like I see 'em. 10,000 ptas is my final offer." I would've just felt better robbing everything he had, but I wasn't that kind of stooge.

"...can my pal get any gun for that much?"

"Sure sure! Like one of these lovely TMPs right here. In good condition with 30 rounds of ammo."

"Just 30?" Louis said.

"However, since stranjahs like yourselves are in need of more, I'll throw in 50 more rounds of it and 50 for your pistol Miss. This time, these aren't fakes."

"That's seems, very generous, but it's a deal." The Merchant handed us the stuff and in return gave him the ring.

"Hehe, thank you...you'll need them."

"...what do you mean?" I asked the suspicious man.

"Up those stairs ahead leads to the crow feastin' courtyard, the same way your pals went. The villagers were talking about releasing the El Gigante again. No time to explain what it is though, but it's big. So you better hurry while you can."

"El Gigante? So your the one who gave me that letter!"

"Letter? Nope, right here the whole time waitin' for ya'. Whoever did though was right on the mark on this one. And again, hurry, I hear the sounds of foot steps marchin' and death knockin'. Heh heh heh." I still wondered who sent the letter if it wasn't him, but at that moment he was right, we had to move either way and fast. With a name like "El Gigante", nothing good can come from it. As we moved up the stairs, I kept hoping Bill and Francis were still alive or conscious for that matter. Hold on guys, we're coming.

To be continued...


End file.
